Blondes
by F.A. Star Hawk
Summary: Takes place after the Naga game. Hiruma starts seeing a pattern of the people who are attracted to Sena. MizuSena SakuSena
1. Chapter 1

FASH: Alright, evidently I've started to get into fairly obscure pairings. But oh well, I'm fairly delusional when it comes to yaoi, therefore I can see Sena with practically everyone. That and I've seen fanart! Fanart is good inspiration when there are absolutely no other fics about the parings you write. Anyways, this takes place after the game against the Nagas, so slight spoiler warnings apply, possibly, if I stay true to the storyline.

Disclaimer: I own up to volume fourteen of the manga, that's good enough, right?

""-speech

''thoughts

"Taki-san! Please stop pushing the button!" Sena asked in a high pitched voice, inwardly asking himself why _he_ was the one who got paired up with Taki in this contest that he never wanted to participate in in the first place. 'I must have the most horrible luck in the world.'

"3x plus 2y to the power of 8 is equal to 4x minus 2.5, what does x equal if y is negative seven."

Sena heard the buzzer go off and he slowly dragged his eyes from his feet to Taki's hand. "I suppose you don't know the answer to that, do you Taki-san?" "A-ha-ha!" Taki gave him the thumbs up. "I am 150 percent unsure!" Sena shuddered and inwardly cried.

'Well, at least he's actually waiting for after they ask the questions now.'

Mamori hit the buzzer. "X is equal to 11529604.5."

There was a stunned silence, then with a loud claim of: "That's right!" the crowd began applauding.

Sena just sighed. 'I hate math.'

Negative five to negative five, the next question was going to determine everything, oh the game show host fell, oh wait, he was coming back-

'HIRUMA-SAN?'

Sena stood frozen as Hiruma asked some question, probably trying to get information on Oujou's latest play, when the sound of a buzzer snapped him back to reality.

'He didn't, he wouldn't.' Sena's eyes slowly moved from Taki's shoulder to down along his hand, which was still pressed firmly on the buzzer.

'He did.'

"Minus one point for pressing the buzzer before the question is done. Ladies and gentlemen, we have our losers!"

Sena could have died of embarrassment right there, at least then he wouldn't have been dragged off of stage by a bunch of over enthusiastic girls who wanted to get his measurements. But alas, fate was cruel and it was all Sena could do to not yell at Taki, who seemed to enjoy all the attention.

'Some day I'm sure I'm going to snap because of all the stuff I have to go through.'

Whenever Sena participated in culture fests at his old school, he usually did a lot of work behind the scenes, he'd never been one of the people that his classmates relied on to make their projects successful. And he was glad about that, because right now he was going through hell.

When he wasn't being giggled at by girls and laughed at by guys he'd see one of his teammates walk by and give him a glance that he was sure said: 'better you than me.'

He respected Taki as a football player, and truly did enjoy the other man's company, but this was just too much!

He sighed as he was called over to a table where a bunch of girls were seated, all of them grinning at him and saying. "Hi Sena-_chan_." In unison, Sena gave a slight bow and smiled. "Good afternoon, how can I help you?" The girl closest to him giggled. "Can you call me Ami-oneesan?"

Sena inwardly twitched, but complied. "Of course Ami-oneesan, how can I help you?" "I'd like one cup of milk tea please, the others aren't sure what they'd like yet." Sena nodded and slowly turned around, rolling his eyes, but smiling, when he saw Taki with his leg up in the air, twirling around, not seeming to care at all that he was flashing his boxers to a number of freaked out customers.

'If Taki-san keeps this up, I think we're going to loose all of our customers.' Sena sighed, not sure wether or not he should be happy about less people coming into the classroom turned teahouse, or depressed because at the end of the day, when the teahouses' failure was being discussed, it would be all their fault.

Sena hurried to the back of the room, noticing out of the corner of his eye that Taki was slowly progressing towards the table of girls. He quickly poured the tea into a cup and began scurrying back, when he tripped over the more-than-likely purposely outstretched foot of a boy with broad shoulders and a sneer on his face.

Sena topped to the floor with shriek, the teacup shattering under him, the hot tea scalding his hands and chest. 'Owww.' There was some gruff laughter, which he supposed was from all the males at the table, but it was quickly silenced when the cocking of a gun echoed throughout the room.

Sena pushed himself up off the floor, eyes wide with wonder as he saw Hiruma lean over the table, one foot on the seat of an empty chair, a gun held loosely in one hand while the other was on the table, keeping him steady.

"I think you'd better watch where you put your God damn foot next time fucking asshole, because if you ever do that to my fucking running back again, you'll regret it." Hiruma with his narrowed eyes and low voice seemed a lot more sinister compared to his usual self, and the guys at the table quickly stood up, trying to walk out of the room looking like they weren't severely scared, but they failed at it.

'Hiruma-san, stood up for me.' Sena thought happily, but before he could shower a million years worth of thanks unto Hiruma, the older boy swooped down, his less severe but still pretty scary frown now directed at him.

"And as for you." He said lowly. "Watch where you're walking, what if you had sprained your ankle in that fall, fucking shrimp?" Hiruma stood up and walked over to one of the abandoned tables, slumping down in one of the chairs.

"Oh my gosh, are you alright?" Sena lifted up his eyes to see one of the girls from the table he had been serving looking down at him with worry. He didn't even know why until she lifted up his hand and he saw blood.

It was kind of funny, how he had only noticed the pain after he saw the blood, but as soon as he did see the crimson liquid, with a couple shards of porcelain jutting from his flesh, he burst into tears.


	2. Chapter 2

FASH: Awww, _SENA_! All adorable and crying and stuff. Sakuraba's in this chapter for a bit, yay!

""-speech

''-thoughts

The five girls, who were the only customers left, had asked around for a pair of tweezers and the girl who had asked if he was alright before, her name was Haruhi, but she insisted on being called Haru-chan, had gingerly removed the shards from his skin before taking him to a nearby water fountain to wash his hands under cold water.

Sena sniffed a bit when the water first came in contact with his cuts, he had stopped crying, but he was sure his eyes were red rimmed and that he looked like a child, being taken care of like this.

But strangely enough while they were in the hallway girls kept on coming up to them, asking what was wrong, and Haruhi had replied that the teahouse wasn't doing very well, and that Sena had tried so hard to get everything together that it was just _destroying_ him.

It was a complete lie of course, and Haruhi always seemed to make sure his hands were out of sight before answering, but by the time Sena returned to the teahouse not only was it full of customers, but the Deimon Devil Bats were the ones serving them, except for Taki, he'd been tied down to a chair, and gaged, probably by Suzuna. His teammates didn't have a ridiculous get up on of course, but Sena felt touched by what his teammates were doing for him.

And then the girls spotted him in the doorway, and pounced, hypothetically.

The day couldn't have ended sooner for Sena, who'd had his cheeks pinched, his hair ruffled, been glomped onto and 'aww-ed' at more times than he could count.

All of his teammates had left, except Hiruma, who was fiddling with his laptop, and Taki, who was still tied to the chair and gaged, but Sena was pretty sure he was asleep anyways. Some of the students in charge of the teahouse had begun cleaning up when Sakuraba, Shin and Takami walked through the door.

Sena immediately tensed and shyly held up a tray in front of him to try and hide himself from the eyes of his rival, his cheeks flushing a rosy red.

"Uh, welcome to the teahouse!" He exclaimed, bowing low, he heard someone snicker somewhere behind him and his cheeks became more red. He quickly straightened himself out. "Please take a seat and then just motion me over when you're ready to order."

Sena turned back around, deciding it was finally safe to untie Taki and sighed despairingly as he fiddled with the knot.

Meanwhile Hiruma was sneaking looks at the group a couple tables away from him, a small frown on his face.

Ever since he had come in Sakuraba had a strange flush on his cheeks and a glaze over his eyes, and as of now the wide receiver was attempting to casually look over his shoulder in the direction of Sena, who was really having trouble with those knots.

"Um, can someone help me with this? I think when Suzuna-san tied Taki-san down to the chair, she didn't plan on ever letting him go free." Sena called out and Sakuraba practically jumped out of his seat immediately after he heard the word 'help' and had made it to Sena's side by the time the younger boy was finished talking.

Hiruma's eyebrows slowly went upward, reaching their peak when Sena clapped his hands together and happily thanked Sakuraba, whose cheeks had finally returned to their normal colour.

'Hmmmm, what do we have here?' The blonde quarterback thought with a feral smirk and Sena, as if sensing his captain's mood, slowly turned around with a distressed expression on his face, so Hiruma turned back to his laptop, chuckling evilly to himself, which in turn caused Sena to let out a pathetic sounding whimper.

Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Sakuraba protectively ask Sena if the short boy was okay, and Hiruma grinned.

And that night, Hiruma dreamt.

_The crowd around him was roaring, he could feel the blood pumping through his ears and he grinned at the opposing team, showing off nearly all of his pearly white, sharp teeth. Then, all things went silent and everyone was staring behind him. He turned around, his eyes moving slowly upwards until he reached a small pair of feet, then his eyes traveled up shapely legs until they reached the hem of a red skirt, up the red, over the flat stomach and the flat... Chest? He felt his eyebrows raise as his eyes snapped up to see the face of Sena, blushing in his Deimon Devil Bats _cheerleading_ uniform. Hiruma didn't even have any time to say anything before the field was covered in the blood of the opposing team. _

Hiruma cracked one eye open with a frown, he never had dreams, so why did he just have one with a bunch of pervs getting nosebleeds? He scanned his groggy mind for the answer, slowly finding it.

Yesterday, Sakuraba wasn't the only one who had reacted to Sena in a dress, the girls did too, but every once in a while a guy would come into the teahouse, take one look at Sena and blush to the tips of their ears.

So Hiruma got out of bed and fumbled around for paper and a pen, writing himself down a note incase he forgot the dream in the morning, and then he collapsed back on his bed and was asleep the second his head hit the pillow.

What did the note say, you may be wondering, well, it said: New tactic before game, test to see if it works, Sena in cheer uniform.


	3. Chapter 3

FASH: I'm not the only one who has a freaky obsession with Sena cross dressing right? Of course not! Thanks to everyone who's reviewed so far, reviews make me happy!

""-speech

''-thoughts

"No Hiruma-san! I don't want to!" Sena practically screamed, his face flushed red from anger or embarrassment, maybe both as he tried to wrench his hands free from Hiruma's grip, glaring up at Hiruma while desperately wondering how he got into this situation.

The day had started out fairly normal, it was bright and sunny and Sena could practically forget that just yesterday he'd been forced to wear a maid outfit and had been ogled by countless girls.

He'd made it through the day with a fairly optimistic point of view about the situation mentioned above, at least no one at school knew about what happened at Oujou except for him teammates. But then he had come to practice.

Hiruma had been talking to Suzuna, who seemed a bit too excited about whatever topic they were conversing about, and then as soon as he'd gotten to close they both gave him a look and he quickly turned and walked a few paces away for safety.

During practice Suzuna had been absent from her usual place among the sidelines with Mamori and Sena wasn't sure why, but he was getting this horrible feeling that something bad was going to happen. And then at the end of practice, Hiruma had sprung upon him, grabbed on of his wrists and had blatantly told him. "Put this on." While holding up a cheerleading uniform with his free hand.

Which lead to the current situation. Sena was desperately trying to make eye contact with anyone on the team who he thought might have the guts to help him, they all avoided his eyes, so he tried his ultimate weapon.

"Mamori-neesan! Help me!" He cried, slowly but surely being dragged into the clubroom, the brunette looked troubled and Hiruma stopped pulling, narrowing his eyes at her.

"Well, uh, Sena..." Mamori blushed and pushed her index fingers together, something she rarely did. "The thing is... I want to see you in that too..." Hiruma grinned and Sena didn't even bother to resist as he was pushed into the clubroom and given a time limit to change.

'What is it with people and wanting to see me in girls clothing?' He held up the uniform in front of him, noticing that the top was probably going to be a bit tight. 'That's probably where Suzuna-san was, making me a top that would fit me.' Sena sighed and longingly looked at the closed clubhouse door, Hiruma was probably guarding it, so he caved and began to change.

When the time limit was up Hiruma kicked the door open and dragged Sena outside, fairly pleased at the teams' reaction, most of them a fairly light blushes on their face. 'First phase: successful.'

Mamori and Suzuna squealed in fangirl delight at the sight before him, so Sena just sighed and tried to bear with it, attempting to hide his uncovered mid drift with his pom poms. 'At least I'll never have to do this again...' Sena thought before he turned and saw Hiruma surveying the team with a strange grin. 'Hopefully...'

"HIRUMA-SAN, I SAID NO! NO means NO!" Sena yelled, trying to sound like he had some choice over the matter, and trying to ignore the fact that he didn't really, because the person most likely to stand up to Hiruma for him was a traitor and Hiruma was never and would never be intimidated by him. But this was just too much. It was just a bit under an hour until the Oujou vs Deimon game, and Hiruma was trying to force him into the cheerleading uniform again, and of course he got his way, again, although Sena had struggled to escape this disastrous fate for a good twenty minutes.

"At the beginning of the game, you're going to go onto the field and-" "NO!" Hiruma glared at him. "Why not?" "Because I'm not good with public humiliation! I am not going in front of hundreds of people wearing this just so you can see if this is some sort of tactic that will make the other team drop their guard!" "Your point being?" Sena clenched his fist. "Hiruma-san no baka!" He turned and quickly exited the change room before Hiruma decided that for calling him an idiot he'd have to do a cheer along with dressing like a cheerleader.

Halfway down the hallway Sena heard the change room door creak open, he paused and turned around, tensing when he saw Hiruma step out, the blonde's eyes locked on him, so Sena started running, turning the corner still looking at Hiruma, who had yet to move from the doorway, so naturally he ended up bumping into someone and fell sprawled on the floor.

'Please don't be Shin-san, please don't be Shin-san.' Was the mantra in his head before he had the courage to open his eyes.

Kakei looked a little weirded out at the sight of Sena in the cheerleader uniform and Sena silently thanked every deity he knew that finally someone was having a normal reaction to this. He quickly pulled himself up off the floor when he heard Hiruma's footsteps, and he knew they were Hiruma's because Hiruma was in the habit of tacking slow, deliberate footsteps when he wanted to freak people out.

"I'm very sorry Kakei-san! Please forgive me! Bye!" Sena bowed a couple times and ran off, passing Mizumachi who had come to find Kakei to get good seats.

Kakie slowly turned, Sena was no longer in the hallway but... "Mizumachi, you're bleeding." He said, pointing at the trail of blood dripping from the blonde's nose. "It's not my fault!" Mizumachi said defensively, wiping the blood away, but not quickly enough for Hiruma to not catch sight of it when he turned the corner. He gave Mizumachi a psychotic grin before quickening his pace.

Sena was very thankful that he could run fast, because he figured if he went fast enough the few people he ended up passing wouldn't have the time to check if he was a guy or a flat chested girl. That and he could outrun Hiruma, which was all that really mattered in this situation.

'A couple more turns and I'll be back at the change room, and hopefully then I can change into my actually uniform in peace.' Sena thought with a sigh, slowing down to a light jog. 'I guess I can think of this as some pre-game exercise.'

"Eyeshield." Sena paused and looked to his right, for a moment forgetting his state of dress when he saw the entire White Knights coming down the hallway. "Shin-san." Sena bowed, and was once again reminded of his newly acquired uniform, he gave out a little shriek and started waving his hands around. "I-It's not what you think! Hiruma-san made me do it! I-I-Idon't like this!" But Shin didn't really seem to care that his rival was dressed up like a girl anyways, so Sena just started running again.

Sakuraba grabbed his nose and titled back his head, thankful that he wasn't in his uniform yet, Takami scoffed at him and patted him on the back. "At least you didn't die from blood loss." The quarterback said and Sakuraba heard some of his teammates chuckle, or in the case of Otawara, give out a hearty laugh.

Thankfully, with his head positioned as it was, he didn't see the look Hiruma flashed him in the hallway, and none of his teammates thought it was a good idea to tell Sakuraba anything about that incident right before their game.

Sena made it to the change room managing not to run into anyone else, and threw the red abomination off him before calmly changing into his normal uniform. 'I'm never letting Hiruma-san do that to me again.' Sena thought confidently, nodding his head. He then grabbed his helmet and began making his way to the field, and if Hiruma wasn't there yet he was going to have a little chat with his team about dignity.


	4. Chapter 4

FASH: Alright, SPOILERS for the end if the Oujou vs Deimon although it's not exactly what happens because I only know the basic things my little sister told me after she read the scanilations for it.

""-speech

''-thoughts

Sena wiped the tears from his eyes, sniffling a bit as he remembered Shin's cruel words to him. Of course it was all he could do, he couldn't help it if Shin was as fast as him now! It wasn't his fault that he couldn't outrun the trident tackle! He glanced around him, his teammates looked worried to, Hiruma was desperately trying to figure out a way to beat the White Knights.

'We're gonna loose, we're gonna loose because I'm not fast enough.' Sena's eyes began to water again.

"And now two people have begun a volunteer half time show." A voice from one of the announcers said, but Sena didn't really care, until he heard the strum of a guitar. He turned around slowly and felt his eyes widen in shock.

There was Akaba strumming his guitar and there was Mizumachi, waving around pom poms wearing nothing but a skirt.

Sena had seen Mizumachi in next to nothing before, since the taller blonde had no problems with stripping down to his swimming trunks in public, and then he had seen him with nothing but a towel on that one time in the bathhouse. He'd also seen him in one of the Kyoshin cheerleaders uniforms before, so this wasn't a very new experience for Sena. But he couldn't help but stare anyways.

'I don't think there are very many normal people who play football.' Sena thought to himself dryly, smiling as Mizumachi jumped around and Akaba played a rift. But he was lapsing back into depression just knowing that the clocks were ticking and soon he'd be back on the field, practically useless. 'I guess I'll just have to run like the hounds of hell, or Cerberus, is chasing after me. If I give up before I even try, I'll lose for sure.' He glanced over to the other side of the field. 'Even if my chances of winning this one are extremely low.' He sighed, turning back around and glancing at each of his teammates. 'We've all worked so hard, even if Shin-san is as fast as I am now, I'll find a way to beat him.'

"Shin, you made him cry! What did you say to him to make him cry!" "You're getting soft, Sakuraba." The blonde flinched a bit. "I am not! I'm playing to win too. I just can't see how-" "He is my rival, now that we are equal in speed, he'll have to overcome his limitations." Sakuraba sighed. "That still doesn't explain why you made him cry."

"Well I still say that if Sena slides into the end zone, like when you're sliding to the home plate, we'll get a surprise touchdown MAX!" "Yeah, but how far is he going to have to slide?" "It's just a suggestion!" "Yeah, well I don't-" "SHUT UP!" Hiruma snapped, pulling out a gun from only God knows where. "Look, we don't have much more time and we're not going to rack up enough points by just kicking, so, fuckin' shrimp, you've got to beat Shin with strength." "... You're kidding right?"

"WE'LL CRUSH 'EM! YA HA!" "YA HA!"

"GLORY ON THE KINGDOM!"

The second half seemed to stretch on for hours and Sena still couldn't believe that _the_ Honjou Masaru had shown up just in time to give Monta a 'pep talk', hell, he couldn't believe that he'd been able to compete against Shin with not just his speed, but his strength as well. But the second half would be done in a mere two seconds. Sena gulped nervously, they had two seconds to turn the game in their favor, two seconds for him to either run into the endzone, or for Hiruma to pass the ball to an exhausted looking Monta.

Sena had come up against this sort of thing during games before, so much to do but so little time to do it in, but not when he was up against Shin. 'This is going to be my biggest test, in order for me to win against Shin-san, I have to do something that no one would expect me to do, something that I haven't done enough times that they wouldn't think I'd be able to do it in this situation.' He sealed his lips together firmly, his brow creasing before his eyes lit up.

'That's it, that's what I can do!' "Hiruma-san." The quarterback turned to him with a look that promised death if this wasn't important. "What?" He snapped but Sena didn't flinch or step back at the tone. "I have an idea."

Sena stood, muscles in his legs tense as he waited for Hiruma to say the final hut before he sprung into action, grabbing the ball from Hiurma he ran forward. 'Shin-san, I will win.' He thought with more determination and confidence than he had ever felt before he sprung into the air above Shin.

No one would expect him to do a Devil Bat Dive against only one opponent.

He fell to the ground, heaving a sigh of relief when he heard Hiruma's familiar cry of: "Touchdown! Ya Ha!" The game ended, forty two to forty.

"Eyeshield." Sena stood up and smiled brightly at his greatest rival.

"Next year, when the current third years are gone Sakuraba and I will do our best to lead our team to victory." He said seriously and Sena nodded, smiling widening. "I'll try my best next year too!"


	5. Chapter 5

FASH: I don't have to much to say today, just thanks for the reviews! I think there's a fair amount of OOC-ness in this chapter, but meh, what can you do?

""-speech

''-thoughts

Sena felt almost lighter than air as he made his way out of the stadium, sure he was exhausted, but they'd won, they had actually won! The whole team was in high spirits as they made their way towards their bus, but Sena was feeling exceptionally energetic and before he boarded the bus he informed Hiruma that he felt up to running back to Deimon. The quarterback had given him a slightly concerned look before asking. "Are you sure? You know what happens when you over exert yourself." Sena had chuckled a bit and had waved off his concern, he felt far to sensational to be cooped up on a bus.

"Alright." Hiruma had said. "But if we arrive at Deimon and you're not there within fifteen minutes I'm forcing everyone to search for your prone body."

So Sena had taken off back towards the stadium at full speed, running through crowds of people with practiced ease until he was finally on the other side of the giant building. Sena just couldn't stop smiling and was practically lost in his own world, which is perhaps why he didn't notice his own fatigue slowly building up.

"Oi! Sena!" The brunette snapped out of his self induced stupor and saw Mizumachi waving at him, Kakei standing silently beside the blonde. Sena began slowing his pace as he approached them, feeling oddly numb, he became vaguely aware that this was sometimes how he felt if he ran too much. And then everything faded to black.

"Uwah!" Mizumachi flailed forward to grab onto the falling boy, quickly casting a nervous look at Kakei when Sena had been secured in his arms. "Kakei, is he okay?" The blue eyed boy gave Sena a quick once over before nodding. "He's probably just passed out from exhaustion." "Eh?! Is that normal?" Kakie shrugged and began walking, much to Mizumachi's dislike. "Oi! Where are you going? We've got to find his teammates!" "His teammates are probably on a bus right now, he probably thought he'd be able to make it all the way back to Deimon without a hitch. But now that this has happened, I guess you'll just have to carry him back to Deimon."

Mizumachi stared at Kakei and slowly looked down at the boy in his arms a slight flush coming to rest upon his cheeks. "Carry him?" Kakei held back a sigh. "Yes, carry him."

Hiruma growled and glanced down at his watch for the fifth time in the last minute. He cursed under his breath. "The fucking shrimp has five minutes, he better not have passed out in front of a car or something." "Hiruma-kun! Don't say things like that, Sena has a lot more stamina than he used to, he'll be fine." Mamori replied lowly as cheers and shouts of celebration went on in the clubhouse, but that didn't make Hiruma feel any more at ease.

Sena stirred, eyes slowly fluttering open only to squint at the vast amount of light shining into them. 'Where am I?'

"Ah, are you awake?" Sena flinched, turning his head and staring up at the concerned face of Mizumachi Kengo in shock. "Mizumachi-san?!" Sena sputtered, flailing around in Mizumachi's arms as he tried to grasp the situation.

"You shouldn't move around too much." "Um, sorry, it's just I'm a bit confused as to what's going on..." "You passed out." "Eh? Really?" Sena bit his lip and blushing. "I guess I don't know my own limits." He chuckled a bit before nervously looking up at Mizumachi. "You can put me down now, I can walk the rest of the way." "Are you sure?" "Yeah."

Mizumachi set Sena on the ground carefully and the brunette was quick to survey the area around them, slightly shocked to see that they were already fairly close to his school.

"Wow, you carried me all the way here?" Sena looked up at the blonde in awe. "You're really strong." The tall boy let out a laugh and ruffled the brunette's hair. "Yeah, but you don't weigh too much so it wasn't that hard." Sena smiled up at him. "Thank you for bringing me this far." He bowed lowly and turned to walk away.

"Wait! I'll walk you the rest of the way there, just incase you pass out again or something like that." Sena was very doubtful that would happen again, but nevertheless he allowed Mizumachi to walk him back to school, thanking him for his kindness.

Hiruma glanced at his watch one last time before stomping to the school gates to take a look at the street before he rounded up the entire team to go Sena Hunting, he glanced to the left, then the right, his eyes widened minutely and a devilish grin broke out on his face.

"Hiruma-san, is everything okay?" Sena called out, slightly worried about the look on his captain's face.

"Oh yeah, just peachy." The demonic blonde chuckled and locked eyes with Mizumachi. "Everything's just fine."

Mizumachi wasn't sure if he should be confused or terrified about the expression on Hiruma's face, but he decided not to dwell on it as Sena bowed to him with a flush on his cheeks, thanking him once more for escorting him back to Deimon.

"No problem! Just don't overdo it anymore!" Mizumachi replied as he turned to make his way back to Kyoshin, holding back a shudder when he_ felt_ Hiruma's eyes follow his movements.

"Welcome back fuckin' shrimp, just in time to. Wonder why you let that lineman walk you all the way here, you could have been late." Sena blushed and rubbed the back of his head, chuckling nervously as he followed Hiruma back to the clubhouse. 'Why is Hiruma-san smiling like that?'


	6. Chapter 6

FASH: I'm going to Medieval Times today! I hope my knight wins this time, I've been there twice before and the third time is the charm right? Random fever cliche in this chapter, because it's fun to write.

""-speech

''-thoughts

Only a little over a week to go until the game against Seibu and practice seemed to be non-stop, all day every day, it kind of felt like re-living the Death March, except the line didn't have to push Doburoku's massive truck around.

It was on a Tuesday that Hiruma had approached Sena, grinning a bit more than he should be as he told the younger boy to run around the block once before he got a break, so the brunette went to the gates and stood at the ready, a shot from Hiruma's gun spurring him into motion. He was nearly halfway around the block when he heard someone calling his name. He stopped against his better judgment, Hiruma was timing him after all, and was surprised to see Sakuraba running his way.

"Good afternoon Sakuraba-san." Sena said with a bow in the other boy's direction, who quickly reciprocated the bow.

"I just wanted to wish you luck against Seibu." Sakuraba said, breathing a little heavily and a strange flush slowly forming on his face which Sena was quick to notice.

"Sakuraba-san, are you feeling alright?" Sena asked, voice heavy with concern as he slowly approached the other boy, Hiruma's stop watch that was slowly allowing time to tick by was thrust into the back of his mind when he saw Sakuraba go even redder.

"I'm fine! Really! Perfectly fine!" Sena didn't believe that at all and he stretched up on his toes, placing his hand gently against Sakuraba's forehead. 'He's not too warm, but better safe than sorry.' "Sakuraba-san, you really shouldn't train if you don't feel well." He said as he retracted his hand, craning his head to look up at the other boy. "You should go home and rest."

"Right, I'll, uh, do that right now." Sakuraba stuttered before turning and running back into the direction from whence he came.

Sena nodded to himself, happy to have advised Sakuraba about his health, until he remembered that Hiruma's stop watch was still running. If Sena was prone to swearing, he would have done so right then, as loud as he could.

"Mind telling me why you took so fuckin' long?" Hiruma asked as soon as Sena arrived back at the gates, Sena gulped and carefully eyed the bazooka that Hiruma was leaning on.

"I'm sorry. I ran into someone on the way, sorry, I'll run it ag-" "Who?" Sena looked at him curiously, wondering why it mattered. "Sakuraba-san."

Hiruma grinned widely and Sena repressed a shudder. "Don't bother running it again right now, take a break with the rest of the team." He said as he sauntered off, Sena, slightly freaked out by Hiruma's smile, which never meant anything good, slowly made his way to where the rest of the team was sitting, dropping down beside Monta.

'Hiruma-san is acting weirder than normal. I wonder if I should be scared.'

And Sena wasn't the only one who had noticed Hiruma's behavior, the blonde was constantly grinning as he typed away on his computer and letting out his trademark: "Kukuku." chuckle.

When the rest of the team had managed to convince Mamori to ask him what was up he just grinned and said. "I see a trend." Mamori carefully prodded as to what trend he was talking about and Hiruma replied. "Blondes." While sending a look over to Juumonji who managed to look slightly offended even though he was blushing. "You're a blonde too Hiruma, are you trying to insinuate something?" "No, I'm just pointing out and interesting pattern."

Sena frowned as he saw recognition dawn of almost half of his teammates faces, was he missing something here? But he decided not to ask because if this was the thing Hiruma had been grinning about, well, it was just safer to not ask.

But he couldn't help the curiosity that chewed at him all throughout practice, couldn't help but notice a couple glances being sent his way by teammates who were talking in low voices. It was distracting, and Hiruma would be even creepier if he found out that Sena was distracted during practice.

So it was with a heavy heart and shaking limbs that Sena approached Hiruma with once practice had been concluded for the day, managing to get his question of what exactly this 'pattern' was on his first try.

Hiruma snapped his gum. "I already told you, blondes." "Hmm, Hiruma-san, what do blondes have to do with anything?" Hiruma blew a bubble and let it pop before casually replying. "You seem to attract the attention of blondes." "And that means what exactly?" Sena asked in a shaky voice, willing himself not to run away when Hiruma bared his teeth in one of his scarier grins.

"It means that Mizumachi and Sakuraba have the hots for you."

There was silence.

"WHAAAAAT?"


	7. Chapter 7

FASH: I really liked the last chapter, 'You're blonde too, are you trying to insinuate something?' That part was awesome! Don't ya think? (Nods nods)

''-thoughts

Sena tossed and turned, desperately trying to get to sleep but with no avail, Hiruma's words coming back to haunt him. At first he was pretty sure the older boy had been lying, but if Mizumachi and Sakuraba did like him, then that might explain a couple things...

'No! Hiruma-san is lying! They couldn't possibly like me, we hardly know each other!' He told himself furiously as he burrowed under the covers. 'I mean really. We've hardly even talked to each other, and we're all guys! I don't like guys and they don't seem very gay to me. So Hiruma-san was just lying, good.' Sena closed his eyes and snuggled into his pillow as he tried to reassure himself to sleep. 'Really, 'you attract blondes'... Wait!' "Hiruma-san and Juumonji-san are blonde! And so is Taki-san!" He cried as he sat straight up, all thought about sleep forgotten as he worried over that undisputable fact.

'But they don't like me right? Right? Oh my God what if they do? Oh my poor weak heart can't take this!'

He really didn't get too much sleep that night.

But the next morning turned out to be worse than the night before, because Sena kept on trying to deliberately stay away from the blonde's on the team, and they noticed, or at least Juumonji and Hiruma notice, he wasn't sure about Taki. Hiruma seemed to find it funny and Juumonji seemed to be annoyed by it, but they both got back at him by deliberately seeking him out. Or at least that's what it seemed like to Sena, but maybe he was just getting paranoid because of everything.

And to top it off he now knew why Hiruma was grinning all the time and he knew what was running through the blonde's head and he did not like it at all. And so Sena confronted Hiruma about it, although he acted very wary around the blonde boy.

"How can you be so sure that they like me? So what if Mizumachi-san walked me back here, so what if Sakuraba-san happened to be training near the school when I went out around the block? It proves nothing!" Hiruma snapped his gum and grinned wider than he had been. "You remember when I forced you into that cheerleaders outfit?" Sena blushed and nodded, how could he ever forget that experience. "They both got nosebleeds from seeing you." "What? Wait... WHAT?!" Hiruma pulled out a gun from only-God-knows-where. "Just train fucking shrimp, before I get sick of your questions."

Well, that was a convincing argument if he'd ever heard one. So he went back to practice, although he still couldn't really focus and he still shot a couple of suspicious looks over his shoulder at Hiruma every once in a while, but for the most part his training went on like usual.

But damn, being paranoid made it _really_ hard to concentrate. And he also discovered that it made him a bit jumpy as he walked home from practice, cautiously scanning the shadows, straining his ears to listen for any unusual sounds, screaming in fright when a cat leapt out in front of him.

'They don't know where I live though, right?' Now _that_ would be freaky, just randomly answering the door one day only to see Sakuraba or Mizumachi grinning down at him while holding out some girly present for him to take, calmly asking if he'd like to go out sometime.

His mother would flip! Or at least Sena was pretty sure she would, she'd probably lock him in his room to keep him away from any male who might have a crush on him. His dad would probably just look at him and go: "I didn't know you were gay Sena." before turning back to his newspaper.

'I definitely have to keep this from my parents, not like _that_ would ever happen though, I'm pretty sure that even _if_ Mizumachi or Sakuraba wanted to go out with me, they wouldn't come to my house to do it, they'd ask after a game or- whyamIthinkingaboutthis?!' Sena cradled his flushed face in his hands, sighing in relief when he reached his house. 'It's okay Sena, just forget that the last thirty hours happened. Mizumachi-san and Sakuraba-san are nice and like you as a _friend_.'

The opened his front door and shuffled up to his room, collapsing on his bed and smothering his face into his pillow. 'I'm tired, I just want the day to end!' He turned to lay on his back, eyes lazily moving towards the door when he heard a mewling coming from the other side. 'I wish cats could open doors by themselves, or that I had telekinetic powers.' He slowly walked over to his bedroom door and opened it. "Hey there Pitt, did you sense my mood and came to cheer me up?" He asked the small kitten as it wandered inside his room, Pitt meowed in response.

"Ah, you're such a good kitty Pitt." Sena said as he scooped the kitten into his arms and sat back down on the bed, scratching her behind the ears thoughtfully. "You never tell me about people liking me, and you never do anything to freak me out... Except that one time, with the fish, but that's perfectly understandable for a cat." Sena smiled as Pitt began to purr. "You're such a good kitty Pitt, you would never let anyone go out with me unless they met your high standards, right?" It was a trick question, because Pitt hated most people other than the Kobayakawa family, but she purred and nuzzled up to Sena's hand anyways.

Sena took that as a 'yes.'


	8. Chapter 8

FASH: Yosh! I just got Kaleido Star: New Wings in the mail the other day and me and my little sister stayed up until four in the morning to finish the whole season, it was so awesome!

""-speech

''-thoughts

Hiruma could feel his eyebrows just _dying_ to twitch and his hands were positively _itching_ to grab hold of a firearm of any sort, but he had to stay calm, or at least look like he was calm. He couldn't scare the boy in front of him away _before_ he had his little _chat_ with him.

"You." Hiruma brought up his right hand and pressed it harshly against Sena's forehead. "Are getting far to distracted." Sena looked up at him curiously. "What do you mean by that Hiruma-san?"

Alright, screw being calm! "Fucking shrimp! You're not focused on practice at all!" Hiruma yelled as he shot a round of bullets into the sky, smirking when he saw most of the team wince, even though every one but he and Sena were on the field.

"So you'd better pay attention! The most important game of our fucking lives is only a couple of days away!" "But Hiiruuumaaa-saaaan, it's not my fault! I was completely fine until you told me about the blonde thing." Hiruma grit his teeth together. "Well then, stop fantasizing about what dating them would be like and focus on football!" Sena turned as red as his uniform. "I-I'm not thinking about-" "Save the excuses for later now GO FUCKING TRAIN!" Sena nodded and quickly darted to Monta's side, the receiver patting his shoulder for comfort as Sena repeated his mantra. 'Just don't think about them, just don't think about them, just don't think about them!'

Of course, with the threat of an angry Hiruma after him it was a lot easier to concentrate during practice, although once practice was over, it was another story entirely...

"Sena?"

'Do I look girly? Is that why? I mean sure Hiruma-san's forced me into the cheerleaders outfit, but that doesn't mean anything!' "Sena!" 'Sakuraba-san and Mizumachi-san seem so straight! I mean, Mizumachi-san tries to peek at girls in the bathhouse! You don't get much straighter than that!' "SENA!" "Uh, yes Suzuna-chan?" "Listen to me when I'm talking to you!" Suzuna had woven her way around him and was now skating backwards in front of him, grinning.

"So Yo-nii was right! You are thinking about what it's like to date them aren't you?" "What! No! No! I would never-" "Awww! You're so cute when you're in denial. So, which one do you like the most?" Sena slumped forward, practically crying and yet thankful that they weren't having this conversation on a bustling street instead of the deserted residential neighborhood that they were in.

"Suzuna-chan, stop making fun of me. I like girls." Suzuna's grin widened. "Oh yeah, name one girl you have a crush on." Sena stopped mid step and frowned, eyebrows drawing together. "... I don't have crushes, but if I had one, it would be on a girl." "How can you say that?! Or more importantly, how can you have never had a crush on someone?!" Sena furrowed his eyebrows together. "But Mamori-neesan is a girl, that would be just weird. And you, you're a girl!" He exclaimed, pointing at her. Suzuna scoffed. "Thanks for noticing." "Why are you walking me home anyways? Don't tell me, you-you h-have a cru-crush on-" "NO! I just want to know which one you like more!" "I don't like either of them in that way!" "I'll be the judge of that, I bet you have a bunch of Sakuraba posters hung up in your room and that you-" "You!" Sena pointed at her. "Are not allowed in my room!" "Oh, so you have something to hide, right? Right?" "_Taki-san._" Suzuna flinched before scoffing and rolling away.

"Fine, I'll just find out when you're in a less sour mood. Get lots of rest for tomorrow!"

'Honestly, do I seem like the kind of guy who would have posters of a teen idol up in my room?' He sighed dully as he walked up to his front door, hand slowly reaching out for the doorknob when his cell phone began ringing. He reached for it sullenly, having a sneaking suspicion that it was Suzuna and she was going to try and weasel a confession out of him, because he'd never have the nerve to hang up on someone.

He carefully brought the phone to his ear while opening the door and letting himself in. "Hello?" "_Hi Sena!"_ Sena nearly sighed in relief when he heard Mamori's voice, slipping his shoes off before making his way to his room. "Hi Mamori-neesan, what did you want to talk about?" "_What are you're plans for tomorrow?_" Sena blinked. "Tomorrow?" "_Yes tomorrow, you know, the twenty first of December, your sixteenth birthday._" Sena nearly tripped over his own feet. "My God, I forgot." "_Well I don't blame you, you've been working really hard, you deserve a break. And know, getting down to business, what kind of cake would you like me to make for your big day?_" "You really don't have to bake me a cake Mamori-neesan." "_Nonsense! It's a ritual, you make cookies for me, I make a cake for you, we can't just abandon tradition!_"

Sena let out a weary sigh. "Alright we won't 'abandon tradition' as you put it and just make me what you usually make." "_Aw, why don't we spice things up a little this year?_" "If you want to." "Alright! I'll talk to you soon!"

Sena snapped his phone shut as he entered his house, Mamori had seemed a lot more excited than usual. 'Maybe she's happy that this year I have more friends to celebrate with, not just her.' And there was no doubt in his mind that Hiruma would know it was his birthday, and that probably meant:

Special Birthday Training.

Sena shuddered at the thought.


	9. AN

FASH: I'm being dragged up to my grandparent's cottage tomorrow and with no computer access (The _horror_!) I'm not going to be able to update for several days. Just thought I'd tell you all so you don't think I've dropped dead or something. Anyways, I'll update as soon as I can, maybe being away from the computer will help me brainstorm some more ideas...


	10. Chapter 9

FASH: Alright, I'm back and ready to rock and roll, or something along those lines anyways.

""-speech

''-thoughts

Sena had woken up that morning fully prepared for the day because even though he was _fairly certain _that this year he wouldn't be getting any birthday beats, who knew what Hiruma would do during training today? He was a year older now, he'd should be able to handle tougher training, more bullets being shot at him, stuff like that. Oh well, whatever Hiruma did wouldn't kill him... Probably.

He met up with Monta along the way to school and was pleasantly surprised when his friend flamboyantly presented him with a bright green card with the words 'Happy Sixteenth Birthday' written in sparkly yellow letters on the front. He read the standard birthday message inside, with a couple personal touches added by Monta: 'Best Wishes MAX' and the like.

They both made it to school right on time as per usual and made their way to the clubhouse. Sena reached for the handle and pulled it open, only to have Mamori immediately envelope him in a tight, suffocating hug.

"Happy Birthday Sena!" She practically shouted into his ear as she concentrated on squeezing the life out of him.

"Oi, stop your strangling and get back to work fucking manager." Hiruma said as he idly flipped through his book of threats, Mamori huffed indignantly but let Sena go. He almost let out a sigh of relief before he felt a muscled arm curl around his neck, and another one wrapping from the opposite side around his chest.

He turned to look at both of his 'captors', Kuroki was the one with his arm around his neck on the right, Juumonji was the one on his left, and Toganou was standing in front of him, patting Sena's hair in a freakishly gentle way.

"Time for birthday beats." Toganou said in a sing song voice and Sena flinched a bit before Mamori sprung into action, grabbing Toganou by the back of his shirt and pulling him away. "Don't bully Sena!"

"Geez, we were just kidding." Kuroki said as he let go of Sena's neck and Juumonji likewise unwrapped his arm from around Sena's chest and took a small step away, smirking. "We're not that cruel, I don't think he'd be able to stand getting hit by each of us sixteen ti-" "Would you all just shut up and get into your gear!" Hiruma commanded rather than asked, snapping his book of threats shut and standing up, glaring at everyone in the room. "I expect you all to be outside on the field in five minutes, if you're not..." He left the threat hanging as he walked outside, no one would dare to be late anyways.

Practice was pretty much the same as it usually was, which came as a bit of a surprise to Sena since he was so sure that Hiruma force a newer training regimen upon him now that he was sixteen. Not that he was complaining or anything, he just thought it was strange.

'Maybe it's because he always makes me train to the best of my ability anyways, knowing that if I don't go all out the first time he can just shoot at me or send Cerberus after me in order to make me try harder.' Sena let out a sigh of relief when practice ended without any major hitches. 'Safe.'

"Oi Sena, I want to 'chat' with you about something, so don't go running off after you change alright?" Sena tensed a bit. 'Or maybe not.'

It was ten minutes till first period when Sena and Hiruma were finally left alone in the clubhouse, Sena was expecting some sort of outburst about how he hadn't been concentrating enough during practice and nearly died of shock when Hiruma said: "Good work today." without even bothering to look up from his laptop. "I thought that I'd have to whip you into shape more than usual today, I'm pleased that you showed some type of maturity and didn't goof off because today's your birthday."

Was that praise of some sort coming from Hiruma's mouth?

"Hell, I thought that with today being what it is and your daydreaming about your boyfriends you'd be a total wreak today."

Not really.

"Hiruma-san, why do you have to keep on bringing this stuff up? I don't have weird daydreams about dating them or kissing them or anything that some girl would do!" Hiruma cocked an eyebrow at him, clearly not convinced. "Don't you like being kissed by guys?"

Sena rolled his eyes and bit back the rather rude retort forming on his tongue. 'Do _you_ like being kissed by guys Hiruma-san?' "Well, seeing as I never kissed a guy, I wouldn't kn-"

It only lasted a couple seconds at most, their lips hardly touched and it was by far one of the gentlest things Hiruma had ever done to him. The blonde pulled back quickly. "Well?"

"You-You-" "I?" "You just stole my first kiss!" Sena exclaimed, pressing his hands against his mouth and rubbing at his lips until he was sure that there were no traces of Hiruma germs left there.

"Yeah, so, did you like it or not?" "What kind of question is that, you-" "Calm down, only girls get so over excitable about their first kiss, besides, if you really hated it you would have slapped me or something by now." The blonde said, completely calm while Sena was nearly hyperventilating. "Besides, now you have something to compare other kisses with right? Go kiss that damn head cheerleader or something." "Suzuna! I'd never kiss her!" Hiruma grinned. "And why do you suppose that is?" "She's my friend, I couldn't, would never-" "How about the manager, first year students seem to flock around her." "Mamori-neesan is like my sister! My older sister!" "Oh, well you don't really have any other female friends do you? If you did hate the feeling of my lips against yours, and clearly you didn't or else I'm sure you would have stomped out by now, you should probably try and coerce one of them to kiss you and see if you like it." Hiruma threw him a look out of the corner of his eye. "Maybe your bi-sexual and just don't want to admit it." He said before leaving the clubhouse.

Sena swore he heard him humming happily under his breath as he left.

'What do I do, what do I do?!' He didn't_ not_ like the kiss, it was just sudden and it was Hiruma and oh God Hiruma had stolen his first kiss like it was the easiest thing in the world to do. He started pacing around the clubhouse, he couldn't go to class when he was so worked up, he still had some time before first period started.

'But I can't kiss Suzuna or Mamori-neesan, that would just be to weird and I'd never have the guts to ask.' He sighed. 'And Suzuna would probably make fun of me.'

He was late for first period that day and had to serve a thirty minute detention at lunch, but that was a far better punishment than having to walk into his classroom blushing and frazzled and more disturbed than he should be after talking to his team captain. The huh huh brother had sent him curious looks that he didn't dare meet incase one of them could read his mind.

He was _never_ going to allow himself to be alone in a room with Hiruma _ever_ again!


	11. Chapter 10

FASH: Hello again my lovely readers, it is once again time for some blondie love!

""-speech

''-thoughts

Sena had spent his lunch hour detention convincing himself that Hiruma's kiss hadn't affected him in any way other than making him a little angry and by the end of the school day he almost believed himself, but still wished he could stop thinking about it so much.

Thankfully he had agreed to go on a 'light jog' with Shin after school today, although a light jog to Shin might be significantly more tiring to Sena who still didn't have nearly as much stamina as the other boy. But training with Shin would surely take his mind off of some current events and then after that he'd be heading over to Mamori's house for a small birthday party with his teammates. Just as long as he didn't look at Hiruma too much maybe he'd be able to forget about it or convince himself it was a dream by morning.

He waited patiently outside the school gates as he glanced up and down the street for his rival of all rivals. He'd left his school blazer and his backpack in the clubhouse and would pick them up before he went over to Mamori's.

It was another fifteen minutes before Sena caught sight of Shin and immediately a grin began forming on his face only to turn into an awkward expression as soon as he saw the tall blonde jogging alongside Shin.

It really shouldn't be a surprise that Sakuraba was jogging as well, after all he'd been training with Shin for a long time now not to mention that if both of them were going to be the team captains next year it would probably be better to train together than on their own. But after the stuff Hiruma had mentioned it was all Sena could do to not run and hide and never come out again.

'Why would Sakuraba-san find me attractive anyways?' He thought warily as the pair got closer. 'He still has a bunch of fangirls and a lot of them are really pretty. Ah, maybe he doesn't like freakishly obsessed girls who know almost everything about him.' He smiled a bit more and waved to them as they approached. 'I, on the other hand, am not an obsessed fangirl and uh, well, that's the only reason I can think of to explain why Sakuraba-san would like me.' He quickly turned and joined the small group jogging, although he wasn't concentrating on it as much as he usually did.

Well, at least he wasn't thinking about Hiruma's kiss.

As they jogged Sena carefully took notice of the occasional look Sakuraba threw him, as if he wanted to start a conversation but wasn't quite sure what to talk about. Sena never felt the need to talk to Shin during any of their previous jogs, simply running beside his greatest rival was a thrilling feeling and no words were needed, but he couldn't help but notice how awkward the silence seemed to be.

He took a deep breath and turned his face partially so that he could look the other boy in the eyes. "So Sakuraba-san, what's your type?"

Sakuraba stumbled, his face turning pink and Sena wondered for a moment, maybe he shouldn't have asked? Because there was still the slim chance that Hiruma had just been lying to him out of boredom and just for the hell of it.

"Uh, well, I wouldn't want to be with anyone who was completely obsessed with me, I get kind of freaked out when every once in a while a girl just pops up out of nowhere and says that she knows everything about me and that our astrological signs match up and that she took some test on the internet that says we'd be perfect for each other." He let out a deep sigh and Sena pursed his lips together tightly. 'It must have been tough being a teen idol, and he's still got girls flocking around him even now, poor guy.' Then, so that it didn't seem weird that he was only asking Sakuraba questions he chirruped. "What's your type Shin-san?"

The older boy paused for a moment before running forward again. "Type?" "Yes, what type of girl do you like?" "Someone who will support her team from the sidelines." Sena gave Sakuraba a curious look. "Like a team's manager or secretary?" He question lowly. "I dont think he really understands the question, Shin's kind of asexual, he doesn't like anyone in that way." Sakuraba whispered back.

Well, Shin was Shin after all, and it always seemed like Shin was far to busy to be training to have a girlfriend anyways.

They spent the rest of the jog sharing some casual conversation, Shin only participating if he was asked a question directly. By the time they were a few blocks from the Deimon Sena picked up the pace, claiming he had to be somewhere.

"Where are you off to? Are you going on a date with someone?" Sakuraba asked casually, although his eyes seemed sharper than usual.

"Oh no, I'm just going to a birthday party." "For who?" "Me." "Oh, happy birthday." Sakuraba said lamely, Shin echoing the phrase a moment later.

"Thanks, see you all later." He said before speeding off to gather his things, and get to Mamori's in record time.

The party at Mamori's house was fun, the cake was good, as usual and it felt wonderful to kick back and relax with his friends on his birthday.

He'd been feeling good the whole evening, so it was only natural that Hiruma would come up to him, grinning some evil smile that would scare away most people, but Sena was used to it by now.

"That was a rather vague description he gave you, anyone in the room could fit it, he must have been trying to hide his feelings." Sena sank lower into the chair he was sitting in.

"Is it in your job description to follow me around or something?" "Yes." Hiruma replied curtly before walking away, the grin never leaving his face.

"With a team captain like that, who needs enemies?" He asked himself before moving out of the chair and wondering over to Monta's side to talk about the big game coming up.

No matter what Hiruma said and no matter what Sena felt, it wouldn't be until after the Christmas Bowl at least until he'd even start thinking about having a relationship with _anyone_.


	12. Chapter 11

FASH: Not much happens in this chapter, just the usual interaction between Hiruma and Sena. I hope to get around to the Mizu/Sena and Saku/Sena love soon, ah well, what can you do.

""-speech

''-thoughts

Sena had stuck around after the party ended to help clean up and had stayed up later than he should have and since both Mamori and her mother were fussy, motherly types they insisted that he stay over. The streets just weren't safe for someone like him to be wondering about, so easy to sneak up on.

And thus he woke up, freezing even though he had three blankets on his and rather uncomfortable after a night of sleeping on the couch in the living room. He rubbed at his eyes wearily, he didn't have practice in the morning today but he did in the afternoon and it would probably be best for him to get up and get over to his house in order to properly prepare for the day ahead of him.

Right after breakfast. He could already smell something wonderful drifting over to him from the kitchen and breakfast was the most important meal of the day after all.

He slowly made his way home after helping Mamori clean up after breakfast, then he slowly took a shower, slowly changed into clean clothes...

'Man, I never really noticed how boring my life without football was before.' He thought with a smile as he peered over the homework that had been given to him for over the winter brake, clinking his finger nails against his desk idly as he waited for time to tick by. 'Well, since I'm not going to be able to focus on my homework anyways, I might as well go to practice early.' He smiled widely and jumped out of his seat, determined to be the first one in his gear and on the field.

Really, he should have known that Hiruma would be there, calmly sitting in the shade of some of the trees by the field as he typed away on his laptop, completely focused on whatever was on the screen.

Sena allowed a very uncharacteristic smirk grow on his face as he slowly tiptoed over, careful not to make a sound. When he was only a few feet away he was ready to rush in when-

"I know you're right there, it's going to take a lot more than that to sneak up on me." Sena let out a small sigh. "Do you have security cameras covering the grounds or something?" He asked as a joke, eyes widening when Hiruma gave him a look hat seemed to say: 'Well, yeah.'

"No way, why do you need security cameras!?" "I can deal with spies more _efficiently_ this way." Sena gulped nervously. "Ahhehehe, efficiently." Hiruma rose an eyebrow before turning back to his laptop mindlessly blowing a bubble with his sugarless gum.

"Well, I'm just going to go get my uniform on then." Sena said awkwardly as he turned away from Hiruma and headed for the clubhouse, eyes constantly moving as he tried to spot the cameras that were watching the field. 'I wonder how long he's had cameras up.' Sena pursed his lips together and tried not to think about it, sure it was probably just cameras monitoring training and spies, but it was still kind of creepy, definitely the type of thing Hiruma would do.

Sena had changed into his uniform in no time and began running laps around the field, only stopping every once in a while to shiver as a particularly chilly breeze blew past. Christmas was only several days away and thankfully it didn't seem like it was cold enough for it to start snowing anytime soon.

"Oi, come over here for a second." Hiruma ordered as he gestured to the empty space beside him and Sena obediently jogged over, although he was still a bit wary. Being alone with Hiruma, especially after that... Incident just awhile ago didn't seem as safe as it used to, not that it really seemed safe before.

"Hurry it up, I'm not going to kiss you or anything." 'Gah! Mind reader!' "Now hurry over here before I make you swim laps." Sena paused eyes widening. "Swim? Outside? In December?!" "Not outside you idiot!" Hiruma rolled his eyes before smirking. "At a recreation center where I can assure you, there'll be at least one person who will be quite happy to splash around with you."

Sena sat down beside him immediately.

"Now then, here are videos of plays that Seibu's running back has been involved in since we last played them." Hiruma said as he gestured to the screen before handing the laptop over to Sena. "Look over these carefully, I don't care about that whole 'we fought one hundred times and this time you won' thing, he's been getting better." Hiruma gave Sena a hard look before getting up and sauntering off towards the clubhouse.

'I guess I might as well not even ask about how Hiruma-san knows that. He knows all, he sees all, simple as that.' He shrugged his shoulders and shivered a bit more when a breeze ruffled his hair. 'Maybe I could go inside the club room to watch it, but then again, Hiruma-san is in there, and even if he did say he wasn't going to kiss me, there's no telling what else he might do.' Sena sighed and clicked onto the play button, immediately becoming immersed in the footage.

'Riku...' "Oi Sena, what are you sittin' around for?" Sena turned to see Juumonji, Kuroki and Toganou peering at the screen over his shoulder. "Ah, Seibu footage, getting a feel for the enemy?" Juumonji asked with a crooked grin.

"I guess so, Hiruma-san wanted me to watch it." He stopped the video and carefully closed the laptop before standing up and grinning at the linemen.

"Let's get to practice!"


	13. Chapter 12

FASH: I was going to write and post this yesterday, but I got called into work before I even got to go on the computer. Oh well, an anime enthusiast has got to make some money for her hobby. Anyways, since I know how completely incapable I am at writing a football game, we'll just sort of... Skip over that part...

""-speech

''-thoughts

Sena awoke with a start, hours earlier than he had set his alarm for staring at his ceiling with wide eyes.

Today was the day...

Yesterday there had been some light training in the morning before the team parted ways to preserve their strength for the oncoming game, each member preparing for the upcoming challenge in his or her own way.

Today was December twenty fifth and in several hours all of his training was going to be put to the ultimate test.

Sena jumped out of bed and began pacing around his room, now that he was up there was no way he'd be able to go back to sleep, he felt so _alive_, so full of excitement and energy that if given the chance he was sure that he'd be able to run around the city ten times before the game and still have enough energy to play in his top form.

But he settled on making breakfast instead, rocking back and forth on his toes ever so often as impatience began getting the better of him.

"Sena? Why are you up so early dear? Should you be resting up for your big game today?" His mother asked in between yawns as she entered the kitchen and moving to stand behind him so that she could peer down at what he was cooking.

"I woke up and didn't feel like going back to bed." Sena replied, shifting to the side so that his mother could better observe his progress.

"Not bad but-" She began before grabbing her apron and tying it on. "I am the master of this kitchen Sena." She patted his hair affectionately. "So I'll handle the rest of the cooking, and you can make some coffee for when your dad finally rolls out of bed." Sena nodded and complied, happy that he wasn't being kicked out of the kitchen like he usually was when he was trying to make something. 'I guess mom understands that I need something to occupy myself with so that I don't go insane from waiting.'

About ten minutes later his father meandered into the kitchen, stumbling around in an unsuccessful attempt to follow his noes to the coffee. Sena smiled lightly and handed hm a mug. "Ah, thanks."

He took his time eating breakfast and then took a long hot shower until his skin was tinged pink but time seemed to crawl by slower than ever before.

'If I had slept in until my alarm went off I would have gotten up eleven minutes ago.' He looked at his watch wearily, he was already dressed and ready to go.

"Sena, do you want to open Christmas presents now? It'll take your mind off the time for a while." Sena slowly shook his head. "I think I'll just leave now, I bet a lot of my teammates will already be at school by the time I get there anyways." "I see, your mother and I should probably head out soon too." Sena turned to face him, puzzled. "Already?"

"Of course." Began his mother as she strutted out of the kitchen. "We want to get good seats to watch our little champion fight." She took a hold of his face and kissed him affectionately on the noes.

"Moooom." Sena rubbed at his noes, blushing at the gesture before he turned towards the door.

"Well, I guess I'll see you after the game." "Fight on sweety! You can do it!" "Don't worry about a thing, you'll do fine." Sena slipped on his running shoes and looked over his shoulder at his parents one last time before he closed the door behind him and made his way to school.

Just as he had thought many of his teammates had already gathered outside the gate to wait for the bus, all of them looking restless and excited, greeting Sena with loud, cheery voices as Sena stood beside them.

Time passed by swiftly from that point on and in no time the were boarding the bus, getting suited up, playing against Seibu... They had nearly won the last time they played, they had been so close to winning...

After a game that seemed to fly by quicker than usual Sena found himself standing on unsteady legs, not able to move from his spot, not able to think because all the cheering around him was distracting him. He slowly was able to move forward towards his teammates, a grin becoming prominent on his face.

They had won.

"Sena." The Brunette turned to face Riku, his legs still a bit shaky from all the running he had done. "Congratulations." And without a second thought he had thrown himself into Riku's arms and wrapped his arms tightly around the other boys' waist. "Riku, we did it!" The fair haired boy awkwardly patted Sena's back. "Yeah, you did." He whispered before turning to look in the stands.

'For some reason, I feel as though there are people staring at me with murderous intent...'He shrugged his shoulders and vaguely began to wonder how long Sena was going to hug him for.


	14. Chapter 13

FASH: Kotaro is adorable, not that it has anything to do with the chapter, but ahhhh, I think he's adorable!

""-speech

''-thoughts

They were supposed to be in the main room celebrating with the rest of their teammates but somehow before the party even began Hiruma had rounded him up and pushed him into the empty hallway to 'inform' him of something.

Sena stood awkwardly in front of Hiruma, his face becoming a rather lovely shade of pink that grew darker every second Hiruma was talking to him.

"What do you mean by: I've arranged a _play-date _for you?!" Sena demanded uncomfortably once Hiruma was finished speaking.

"I meant exactly what I said. I know your mind inside and out, I know that you are no longer sure about your sexuality, I know that you wouldn't want to focus on a relationship when the Christmas Bowl was coming up. But, it's over now, and I think your little hug with Riku a couple hours ago made a couple people jealous, so it's only fair."

"Fair? How so?" Sena asked, genuinely curious since he knew no matter how much kicking and screaming he did Hiruma would never change his mind.

"It's fair because I say it is so stop complaining!" Sena sighed and asked. "Why are you so interested in my lack of a love life anyways?" "I get bored very easily." Sena sighed again, he should have known that the answer would be something like that.

'And since there's no way I can stop this boulder once it's started rolling...' "What exactly am I doing with who?"

Two days later found Sena at a recreational center with a duffle bag the Hiruma had prepared for him and a map of where he was supposed to go to find the change rooms. He wearily followed the directions on the map, his pace slowing down when the unmistakable smell of chlorine infiltrated his noes.

When he made it into the change room he quickly slipped out of his clothes and put on his black swimming trunks and placed the pair of goggles Hiruma had seen fit to bestow upon him around his neck.

Apparently it was going to be just him, Mizumachi and Kakei in the pool but for some _strange_, clearly _unprecedented_ reason Sena really doubted that Kakei would be there.

'I hope Hiruma-san didn't set up any cameras.' He thought as he stepped out of the changing room and into the swimming area, the smell of chlorine overwhelming his senses for a moment.

"Sena! Over here! Over here!" The voice called and suddenly there was a whole lot of splashing noises coming closer to him.

Sena turned to look at Mizumachi and forced a smile that he hoped didn't look fake on his face. He didn't see Kakei anywhere. "Mizumachi-kun, was Kakei-kun unable to make it?" 'Or did Hiruma-san just lie about him being there to in order to make me more willing to go through with this.'

"Kakei-chan called me up this morning and said he wasn't feeling well, but that just means more fun for us." Mizumachi gripped at the side of the pool and shifted his eyes around as if someone could hear their conversation before saying. "Kakei-chan can be a bit of a stick in the mud sometimes."

'So Kakei-kun was supposed to come.' Sena slipped into the pool a couple feet away from Mizumachi, feeling a bit less nervous than he had before. If Kakei was supposed to come but had to stay home because he wasn't feeling well then there was less of a chance that Hiruma had done something unacceptable like call Mizumachi up and say: "Take him, he's all yours." Or something equally freaky.

'But still, I guess it's nice to swim around for a bit, even if my hair's going to smell like chlorine afterwards.'

"Sena, wanna have a race?" Mizumachi asked excitedly , gliding through the water as if he were some type of merman.

"Uh, I think a race would be fairly pointless Mizumachi-kun..." Sena trailed off at the utterly heartbroken look the other boy was giving him. "But I guess we could, just once." Mizumachi grinned widely and started swimming towards the edge of the pool. "Come on Sena, I'll even give you a head start!"

'Even with a head start I'm pretty sure I'm gonna loose terribly.' He thought pessimistically and was proven right not even two minutes later.

"Mizumachi-kun, do you want to go visit Kakei-kun after this?" Sena asked as he lazily floated around, when Hiruma had told him he'd arranged a play-date for him swimming around with Mizumachi wasn't really what he thought would happen, thankfully his instincts were wrong.

If just swimming around with Mizumachi was Hiruma's version of a play-date, what the hell was it going to be like with Sakuraba?


	15. Chapter 14

FASH: I want a kitty!

""-speech

''-thoughts

Sena hummed to himself lowly as he made his way to the address the Hiruma had told him to go to, feeling much more secure about this 'play-date' thing after having done it with Mizumachi.

Strange thing though, once they had finished swimming and had gone to Kakei's to see if he felt any better he didn't look sick at all, but by then Sena had confirmed with Mizumachi that Kakei was supposed to be there, Hiruma had told them both to be there.

'I wonder if Kakei-kun knows what Hiruma-san is up too...' But that couldn't happen right? Could Kakei really see through Hiruma's scheming and if he could, why did he leave Mizumachi and Sena alone together? 'What if... Hiruma-san and Kakei-kun have ganged up together in this _madness_ to try and get me a boyfriend?' Oh it was practically to horrible to think about Hiruma was enough to deal with already, if any other people, besides Suzuna because she didn't really scare him, decided that what Hiruma was doing sounded like fun, Sena would be so _screwed_.

But Sena attempted to take some comfort in the fact that if Hiruma really didn't want him to be completely alone with, uh, his 'suitors' if he was going to be with Sakuraba, Shin would probably be there, and if Shin was going to be there they'd just train together like normal, and if they just trained together like normal Sena had nothing to be nervous about.

But what if Shin was in on it too? No, wait a minute, Shin didn't seem like he would particularly care about 'matters of the heart'.

Sena stopped in front of a park, carefully craning his neck to look at the name of the street he was on. It was the right address... 'I'm sure that Sakuraba and Shin are just training in the park for some strange, incomprehensible reason.' He suddenly spotted Shin doing chin ups on the jungle gym with Sakuraba staring at him with thinly veiled shock.

To his immense relief the day turned out just like Sena thought it would, a lot of training in the park in Shin's case and a lot of jogging around the block in Sena and Sakuraba's case since neither had the nerve to train with a bunch of park equipment and nothing really major happened between them.

'Come to think of it, nothing really major happened with Mizumachi-kun either, and I was all alone with him. Does that mean that neither of them want to make the first move?' Sena frowned a bit, because if he knew Hiruma, and he_ knew_ Hiruma, then Hiruma would know that Mizumachi and Sakuraba would be unlikely to make the first move, and then he'd probably somehow coerce Sena into making the first move.

The mere thought made him pale and Sakuraba paused his jog for a moment to ask if Sena was alright.

"I'm okay, really, I've just, uh, got a really bad headache." "Do you want some aspirin? I don't have any on me right now but I don't live too far from here." "Uh, sure..."

Would it be overestimating Hiruma's abilities to assume that he knew this would happen?

It was about a seven minute walk from the park Sakuraba's house with a couple sentences shared between them to keep an awkward silence at bay. As soon as they stepped inside Sakuraba dashed off, claiming he'd be back in a second and Sena looked around curiously.

Sakuraba's house was very clean, everything appeared to be in it's proper place and there was no doubt in Sena's mind that Sakuraba's room would be spotless and tidy like the rest of the house... Not that Sena cared about what Sakuraba's room looked like or anything.

He pulled off his shoes and took a couple steps further into the house, peering into the living room curiously and smiling when he saw a calico cat stretched out on the back of the love-seat in front of the window.

"Sorry to keep you waiting." Sena flinched a bit when the voice suddenly sounded off behind him, but turned around with a smile, still glancing at the cat from the corner of his eye.

"It's no problem, thank you." Sena quickly downed the Aspirin and sipped at the water Sakuraba had brought him.

"What's your cat's name?" "Akira." Sakuraba stepped into the living room and Sena followed behind him. "It's a boy then?" "Yeah, a very lazy boy." Sakuraba reached out his hand and scratched the cat behind it's ears, Akira cracked one eye open and looked at him before nuzzling the hand.

"Well, most cat's get a bit lazy once they grow up." Sena moved forward and started running his fingers through the fur on Akira's back. "But it's nice when they just lay down and let you pet them."

"Y-Yeah. Do you have a cat Sena-kun?" "Um-hm, her name's Pit, she's a bit more active than Akira cause she's still pretty young." Sena smiled widely. "Most guys tend to like dogs and hate cats, I don't see why, they're so adorable." "Y-Yeah." "If I ever get married, it'll definitely be to someone who likes cats." Sakuraba's face slowly became a rather lovely shade of pink. "Is that so?" "Yep. Oh! We should probably get back to the park before Shin-san wonders where we've run off to." "Yeah..." Sakuraba pulled his hand away from Akira and began making his way back to the entrance, Sena stayed a few seconds longer to give Akira a couple scratches behind the ears before following Sakuraba's lead.

They pulled their shoes on and began to slowly walk to the park, both of them wondering out load what type of weird exercise Shin would be going through when they got back before Sakuraba got the nerve to ask:

"Um, Sena-kun, before when you said if you were going to marry someone, it would have to be someone who likes cats, why didn't you say it would have to be a girl who likes cats?" He twiddled his thumbs in a very un-Sakuraba-like gesture.

"Well, it's because I'm kind of, you know, as long as we could make each other happy, I don't care what the gender is." Sena replied, mentally noting how Sakuraba seemed to stand a bit taller and smile a bit brighter after hearing that.

'Well, I suppose hanging out with Sakuraba-san wasn't so bad, he is a cat person after all.'


	16. Chapter 15

FASH: Yo, not too many chapters to go until it's done! Anyways, for the ending I'm going to have a Mizu ending and a Saku ending because I can't choose one over the other and since I plan on making both endings fairly long chapters I'm going to post something special to keep you all happy. It's something I'm pretty sure you'll all like! (Grins) But it's a surprise until I actually post it. I had a lot of fun in this chapter, I hope you enjoy it!

""-speech

''-thoughts

Hiruma idly tapped his fingernails against the table in front of him, apparently Sena thought that after training with Sakurba and Shin (But mostly Sakuraba.) he should come back here to the clubhouse and 'report to him.'

Not that Hiruma was complaining, Sena's seemingly unwavering loyalty to him usually fed his ego, but Hiruma had better things to do than listen to Sena go on and on about Sakuraba's goddamn _cat_.

"If you think pets are so awesome, Mizumachi has a ferret." "_Really?_" Hiruma sighed in annoyance. "Yeah, really. Now then, so long as you're here, let's get down to business." Hiruma turned and stood up, rifling through a his bag.

"What business?" Sena asked curiously, peering over his shoulder, Hiruma grabbed a hold of what he was looking for and with a straight face answered:

"Gay sex."

Sena's reaction, as one might expect what to loudly ask, "What?!" before flipping out and rambling about how Hiruma had taken his first kiss and now he was going to take his virginity and oh-good-God what would his parents think of him if they knew he had sex with his captain.

"Shut up, I'm not going to have sex with you, stop over-reacting." Sena stopped spazzing out, a blush staining his cheeks. "Over-reacting?! This is s-s-sex we're talking about! Why do we have to discuss the bees and the bees?!"

"We're not discussing it." Hiruma stated as calmly as ever before pressing the case he had taken out of his bag into Sena's hand. "I would have gotten you a couple books on the subject but I doubted that you'd actually bother to read them, so there you go, just watch it and you'll learn everything you need to know."

Sena opened up the small, thin case and stared at the unmarked disk in horror. "Hiruma-san, are you making me watch porn?" "No I am not making you watch porn, stop freaking out about everything today, it's annoying." "Well, if you don't mind my asking, what is it then?" "You'll just have to watch it to find out." Sena gave Hiruma a distinctly distrustful look.

'Damn, he really thinks I'm gonna make him watch porn.' "Okay shrimp, here's what we're going to do, I'm going to put that disk into the DVD player right now and give you the remote, then I'm going to go out for exactly one hour and seventeen minutes, which is one minute and twenty seconds longer than what the disk runs for, so in theory I could come back and I wouldn't know any better if you didn't watch it at all, however..." Hiruma paused for a moment as he grabbed the disk and placed it in the DVD player, then he took the remote from the top of the television and handed it to Sena.

"It would be in your best interest if you watched it, trust me." He ended before strutting out the door. "The hour and seventeen minutes start now."

Sena sighed, what did he have to loose? Other than his virgin eyes and virgin ears.

So with a sigh he flicked on the TV and the DVD player and hit the play button.

'Oh please don't let it be gross.' He was surprised when Hiruma appeared on the screen in front of him, grinning in a rather unpleasant way.

"Alright shrimp, since I don't want to have to go through saying all this stuff to your face I made this video for you, so you'd better be fucking thankful." Hiruma grabbed a large board from somewhere off screen and held it up to show some sort of chart.

"Alright before I actually get on to the explanation I'll be frank, you are part of this percentile." Hiruma said as he pointed to the largest column of the chart. "What this means is that you could probably have any guy you wanted, because you're like everyone's secret fantasy and whatever." Hiruma rolled his eyes and Sena blushed. "It's probably because you're small and wide eyed and sweet but unbeatable when you're on the field, or something like that. But women tend to not think of you romantically, so it's good that you're going along with my plans. Now then, Sakuraba is in this percentile..."

One hour and fifteen minutes later Hiruma burst in through the door, looking very pleased with himself. "Oi, the video's over so you can stop blushing now." Sena looked up at Hiruma awkwardly, lips moving to form words, but none were actually spoken.

"I know, I'm awesome for doing that aren't I?" Hiruma strutted forward and wrapped an arm around Sena's shoulder.

"And now that you know all about that type of stuff, it's time to make a decision." "A decision?" Sena asked weakly, eyes still staring the blank screen ahead of him.

"Yeah, on who you're going to end up with after all." "What? Why do I have to make that decision now?" Sena demanded. "Well, if you go any further with both of them just to figure your feelings out in the end one of them is going to get really hurt by you." "Is that why you didn't want me alone on the play-date things?" "Yeah, even though the damn foxy eyes ruined my plan by not showing up on his own accord. You've hung out with those Poseidon guys before, you've trained with Shin and Sakuraba, nothing weird about that." Hiruma took a deep breath. "Now it's time to choose."

"But I can't choose." Sena whined, pressing his forefingers against each other as he blushed redder than a cherry. "It's cruel to make me decide." "But you must like both of them a bit if you've gone along with my plans for this long, so, it's time to choose. Who's it going to be?"


	17. Hiruma

FASH: Alright, here's the short, uh, 'bonus ending' that I wasn't actually going to write but ended up doing anyways because I don't know how long it's going to take me to do the actual endings because I want to make them both at least eight pages long and I want people to have something to entertain themselves with in the meantime... Anyways, I hope you enjoy!

""-speech

''-thoughts

Sena closed his eyes, thinking everything through very carefully, before setting his sights on Hiruma.

"You." "Huh? Me what?" "I choose you."

Hiruma stared at him for a moment, eyes slightly wider than normal before. "Why the _fuck _would you do something stupid like that?!" He demanded. "Well you see Hiruma-san, after encouraging me to play football, stealing my first kiss and doing so much to make sure that I go out with someone who likes me, I figure you must like me at least a little bit." Sena took a daring step towards the blonde. "Besides, I've known you longer, I'm more used to you." Hiruma began leaning away but Sena stopped him by wrapping his arms around the older boy's neck.

"Therefore Hiruma-san, I choose you, and you're going to have to live with it."

Hiruma pursed his lips together, his hands slowly moving to rest on Sena's hips. "Are you sure you wanna go through the trouble? Once you agree there's no turning back." Sena smiled up at him. "I'm sure I can handle the trouble Hiruma-san. I'm just happy you didn't tell me that my decision was impossible. Not that I don't like Mizumachi-kun or Sakuraba-san or anything but-" Sena fell silent when Hiruma's lips pressed against his, a little harsher and longer than their first kiss.

"Well, since you're my boyfriend now, you don't have to admit that you like anyone that I may have tried to set you up with before." Hiruma said between the kisses he was lining up along Sena's neck, nipping at the flesh ever so often.

"I-I'll try and keep that in mind." Sena stuttered out as he threaded his hands through Hiruma's hair, forcing Hiruma's lips away from his neck and back against his own.

Oh sure Mamori was probably going to die of a heart attack from this, everyone would think Hiruma forced Sena into it and their teammates would probably wonder if something had been going on behind their backs the whole time, but as Hiruma dug his finger into Sena's hips, prying Sena's willing lips open with his tongue, they both couldn't help but think that...

This was by far the _best_ decision Sena had made in his _entire_ life.


	18. Sakuraba

FASH: This took a little long than I thought it would because I've been working a lot lately (falls over from exhaustion) but at last here's Sakuraba's happy ending! Mizumachi's should be up before I start school on Sept. 4th. Hopefully...

""-speech

''-thoughts

Sena pursed his lips together and gave Hiruma a hard look before sighing. "Sakuraba-san." He said, wincing a bit when he thought about how Suzuna would act if she heard he'd chosen the former idol, he could imagine it now, she'd just skate up beside him and ask where his Sakuraba shrine was hidden, which posters he owned, did he listen to his CD every night before he went to sleep.

"So that's the way the bullet flies eh." Hiruma cracked his knuckles and Sena took a cautious step back. "I guess I'll have to start mentally preparing you for the next step."

The next step? Was Hiruma going to make him take a test or something? "What am I being mentally prepared for?"

"The next time you see Sakuraba, you're going to let him know that you know about his crush on you." "W-why would I do that?!" "Because if I left you to your own devices you would take too long." "So what am I supposed to do, just go up to him and say: Hey Sakuraba-san, I know that you like me because Hiruma-san told me that you do and my team captain thinks I should tell you this so that our relationship can progress at a rate that satisfies him."

"I'd rather you didn't mention me, but that's fine." "And why are you forcing me to do this?" "I'm not forcing you to do anything, you could easily just not do it, it's not like I'd kill you for not telling him." Hiruma smirked at Sena in his usual evil fashion. "So in the end, you are doing this of your own free will." "Alright, if you say so." "Good, now that we're on the same page, let's begin your mental preparations." Hiruma turned around and started rummaging through some boxes, Sena peered over his shoulder curiously.

"One quick question before we go onto this. Why exactly do I need mental preparation?" "Because if we don't prepare you for it you know you'll just run away the next time you see him and avoid him for the rest of your life." "Ah, I see."

But how would Hiruma be able to help him prepare for that?

"You're not going to prepare me with a video again are you? I don't think I'll be able to approach Sakuraba-san if you tried to boost my confidence like that." "No, we're going to be doing this face to face." Hiruma leaned in a bit closer, grinning widely when Sena attempted to lean back.

"Hiruma-san, do you have to be this close for the mental preparation?" Sena asked nervously, suddenly fearing that his second first kiss might be stolen.

"Yes, I have to be this close, and you have to proclaim your undying love to me." Sena managed a weak smile, praying that Hiruma was joking. "Excuse me?!" "If you can't do it to me, how will you be able to do it to Sakuraba?"

Sena decided to not remind Hiruma that he and Sakuraba _were very _different and that Sena wasn't going to be announcing his _undying love_, just his interest and knowledge that Sakuraba was interested.

Hell, if he could confess to _Hiruma_ of all people, anything was possible.

"Umm, why do I have to announce my, uh, undying love?" He asked nervously, gripping at the hem of his shirt. "Well," Hiruma began, looking like he was enjoying this far too much. "Sakuraba isn't the type who'd date someone after they said 'I know you like me, and I think I like you.' The guy's had multiple marriage proposals and proclamations of true love for a couple years. He's not going to start a relationship with someone he isn't absolutely sure is serious about him." Hiruma put is hands on his hips, glancing down at Sena in boredom. "Well?"

"Umm, Hiruma-san, I l-l-li-like y-y-" "Don't confess like a pansy! Be bolder! And remember undying love!" Sena nodded, blush quickly spreading across his cheeks.

"Hiruma-san, for a while now I've really-" "Don't stall, just come out and say it." "Um, right." Sena took a deep breath, not noticing the clubroom door was slowly opening.

"Hiruma-sanIamdeeplyinlovewithyou!" "Eh?! Really? Really?!" Suzuna skated forward and grabbed onto Sena in a bear hug. "Really? You and Yo-nii?" "Ah! Suzuna, it's not what you think! It's just practice! Right Hiruma-san?"

Hiruma, who had taken a step back to avoid being crashed into by an over enthusiastic Suzuna, nodded his head. "Just practice for when he actually does have to confess."

"Oh." Suzuna loosened her hold on Sena, looking a bit depressed before perking up again.

"Can I watch?" "Yeah, sure." Hiruma said lazily, much to Sena's astonishment.

"What? But it's hard enough doing it without an audience." Sena whined, throwing a dark look at Suzuna out of the corner of his eye when he saw that she had retrieved a camera from only-God-knows-where.

"Exactly, if you can do this with the damn cheerleader fangirling around you can do it anywhere." "_Oh, wonderful_." "Yay!"

It took two hours, _two god forsaken hours _for Sena to 'get it right' by Hiruma's standards and by then the sun had already begun to set.

'My parents probably expected me home hours ago.' Sena sighed and stepped out of the clubhouse, shivering a bit. 'I hate it when it's cold.'

And then Suzuna came rolling up behind him, a grin spread over her face and he just _knew_ what the next words out of her mouth were going to be.

"So, do you have a Sakuraba shrine hidden in the closet of your room? What posters do you have? Is there one on your ceiling?! There is isn't there! Do you have his CD?! Do you lis-" "No Suzuna, I don't listen to his CD every night before I go to bed." "But you own it?!" "No. Nor do I have posters or a shrine." He said, hoping there wasn't any other merchandise Suzuna would try and convince herself that he owned.

'Poor Sakuraba-san, he probably still has to deal with stuff like this all the time. I wonder how he's kept his sanity...' Sena tilted his head curiously as he walked forward, ignoring Suzuna as she rambled on about something beside him.

There was no doubt in his mind that now that he had been 'prepared' by Hiruma any day now he would 'coincidently' run into Sakuraba, hopefully in a secluded area, and then he'd confess nervously while he had the strangest feeling that he was being watched from the shadows by his captain.

'Hiruma-san says I have to claim I love him, but I don't know Sakuraba-san well enough to love him, I like him and all, but love is such a strong word.' Sena sighed.

"Hmm, what are you sighing for? Huh? Huh?!"

Ah, he had nearly forgotten Suzuna was there, he turned to look at her. "It's nothing, I'm just kind of tired. Shouldn't you be getting home? I'm sure your mom is worried." Suzuna opened her mouth to retort, but snapped it shut, eyes widening as she looked ahead at something before quickly stuttering a goodbye, skating away before Sena could so much a mumble a 'good night.'

'Well that's weird.' Sena turned to start walking again, pausing when he saw the figure waiting by his gate. 'No, Hiruma-san wouldn't...'

The tall blonde figure suddenly looked his way and appeared to perk up a bit, waving at him shyly.

'Okay, so maybe he would.' Sena took a deep breath and walked forward quickly, trying to shake off the extreme nervousness making itself known in the pit of his stomach.

"Um, hello Sakuraba-san." "Good evening Sena-kun." Sakuraba looked just about as nervous as Sena felt, and the brunette was _pretty sure _he knew why.

"Your captain called me up and told me that you needed to talk to me about something."

Damn Hiruma was a fast worker, and Sakuraba came over pretty damn quick, a lot quicker than it would normally take.

'Wait a minute, how can he be here already? Hiruma couldn't have called him until fifteen minutes ago... Was Sakuraba-san already hanging around my neighborhood before Hiruma-san's call?' Well, that was a kind of creepy thought, but there was no time to be thinking over stuff like that right now.

'I know Hiruma-san told me to pronounce my undying love, but I can't just lie like that.' Sena took a deep, calming breath before blurting out. "Sakuraba-san, I know you like me andIkindoflikeyouback." Sena closed his eyes and took a small step back, not sure if he wanted to see Sakuraba's reaction.

After what seemed like an eternity of silence later Sena opened one eye cautiously.

Sakuraba looked as though he was going to die from the blood rushing to his face.

"Can you run that by me again?" 'Aw, but I don't wanna say it _again_.' "Do I have to?" "Yes." He replied firmly, the blush starting to fade from his cheeks.

"Sakuraba-san, Hiruma-san told me that you like me, so I know that it's true, and I like you too... And that's about it." Sena finished and dashed into his house before Sakuraba could react.

'... Maybe I shouldn't have run away.' He thought as he closed his bedroom door behind him, biting his lip in thought, jumping when his cell phone began to ring a couple seconds later.

"Hello?" "_... Hello Sena-kun._" "S-Sakuraba-san? How do you know my cell phone number?" "_You're captain told me... I swear it's not because I'm stalking you or anything creepy like that!_" "Uhhhhh..." "_... That sounded kind of bad didn't it?_" "Yeah, just a bit." Sena replied, the corners of his mouth turning up into a smile.

"So, why did you call?" "_Well, you sort of ran away before I could ask you if you... If you wanted to... You know..._" "Go out sometime?" "_Yeah, that's it. Do you?_" Sena blushed and nodded before remembering that he was going to have to verbally answer. "Yeah, I'd love to." "_R-Really? Great? Did you want to do something on New Year's Eve? Or do you have plans already?_" "New Years sounds great." "_Really? Awesome, I'll call you tomorrow to make some plans, or, could I come over to make the plans? Or is that-_" "You can come over Sakuraba-san, at noon?" "_Noon it is, see you then._" "Goodnight."

Sena flipped his phone shut, realizing rather belatedly that his heart was beating faster than it should have been and his face felt rather warm.

Sena quickly changed into his pajamas and nestled under the covers in his bed even though it still wasn't very late and he hadn't even bothered to eat anything for supper yet.

He had to go to sleep now before he completely understood the immense gravity of the situation he had just put himself in. Besides, it couldn't hurt to get an early start the next morning. 'I wonder if I'll end up waking up before my parents again...' He thought before drifting off and when he opened his eyes again light was already streaming in through his window. Way too much light for it to be morning. He quickly turned to look at the alarm clock, blinking rapidly to make his eyes less blurry.

It was eleven thirty six. 'Of fuck!' He dashed into the bathroom and took what was probably the quickest shower of his life before running back to his room, a towel slung around his waist and pulling on whatever clothes happened to by lying around without bothering to completely dry off first.

"Sena! Someone's here to see you!" His mother called from the bottom of the stairs. 'Damn, he's seven minutes early.' He rushed back to the bathroom to put away his towel. "Send him up mom!" He called down the stairs before rushing back to his room.

Darn it all, he had wanted to at least clean it up a bit before Sakuraba came over, not that he was a slob or anything, but he would have felt better about letting Sakuraba into his room if he had time to make his bed, put away some of his laundry and pick some of his videos games up off the floor and put them back in their cabinet.

But no time to worry about that right now, his door was opening.

And thus his first words face to face with Sakuraba as a couple were: "I'm sorry my room's a mess."

Sakuraba blinked at him in confusion before smiling nervously. "That's okay. It's, uh, nice to see you." "Yeah, nice to see you too." Sena replied nervously, running a hand through his still soaking wet hair. "So... Now what?" Sena peered up at Sakuraba. "Well, we could sit down." The other boy suggested. They both sat down on Sena's bed awkwardly.

"So..." "Yeah..." They both looked at each other shyly, Sena looking away immediately and Sakuraba blushing a bit before leaning forward a bit.

"Can I hug you?" He asked boldly, even though his cheeks were tinged red. "Wh-what?" Sena looked back at him, twiddling his thumbs. "Sure, I guess."

Sakuraba slowly took Sena into his arms, holding him very loosely against his chest. Sena took a deep breath, the older boy smelt like really nice aftershave or cologne, Sena wasn't sure which He liked it, but he figured telling Sakuraba that he thought he smelt nice would be kind of weird.

They stayed like that for a few minutes before Sakuraba pulled away, still keeping his hands on Sena's shoulders.

"So, about New Year's Eve... Did you want to come over to my house and we could do something? Or did you want to go to a shrine and get some good luck charms for the new year? Or see a movie?" "Um, I'm not sure, I've never been on a date before. I'll just do what ever you'd like." "But what if you don't like what we end up doing?" Sena thought about it for a moment before grinning. "Then I guess I just have to choose what we get to do next time."

The brightness of Sakuraba's smile after Sena said that could have probably rivaled the sun on a clear day at noon.

They began to chit chat about small things, slowly starting to become more comfortable with and learning more about each other. They had just begun a conversation on their middle school days when Sena's stomach decided to interrupt with a rather loud growl.

"Would you like some lunch?" Sakuraba asked, stifling the chuckle that wanted to make itself known.

"Oh, I can just get something from the kitchen to snack on, I'll be right back." The brunette said reassuringly as he pushed himself up off his bed, but Sakuraba just followed right behind him.

"I haven't eaten yet, did you want to go out for some lunch?" He questioned, looming over Sena's shoulder in a mother-hen kind of way.

"Uh, sure. I'll just run back upstairs to get my wallet." "That's okay, I'll pay for it." Sakuraba took Sena's hand and began pulling him along, quickly slipping on their shoes and coats, moving out the door before Sena had a chance to call out to his parents and tell them where he was going.

He shivered a bit when his first stepped outside, his damp hair making him more cold than he should be and ahead of his Sakuraba was marching onward, bot looking back. 'Well, he's eager.' "Sakuraba-san, you really don't have to pay for me." "But that's what boyfriends do right?" "If that's the case, then I'm a boyfriend too." "Yeah, but..." Sakuraba trailed off, clearly not able to argue his case any more. Sena almost felt bad for opposing Sakuraba's ideals, almost.

"I'll go back and get my wallet, I won't be long." He coaxed gently, as if speaking to a small child, but Sakuraba's hand still didn't let go of his own, and the older boy didn't stop walking.

"I'll tell you what, I take you to lunch, and in return you can stop calling me Sakuraba-san."

The brunette pressed his lips together, puzzled. "What am I suppose to call you then? Sakuraba-kun?" "Haruto, you should call me Haruto." "Wi-without an honorific or anything?" "Umm-hmm. And I'll call you Sena." Sakuraba's hand tighten around Sena's and the younger boy was almost completely sure than if Sakuraba turned around right now he'd be blushing.

'Well, I guess it's only natural that we'd call each other by our first names, although everyone seems to call me by my first name anyways...'

Sakuraba lead him to a café and ordered for the both of them since Sena didn't seem to have any idea about what he wanted.

"You can go grab a seat and I'll bring everything over when it's ready." "Sure." Sena wandered off toward a rather secluded bunch of seats, hardly visible due to all the fake, or maybe they were real, plants that were there as some sort of interior design thing. He figured they'd both appreciate the privacy.

Having lunch with Sakuraba was blessedly un-awkward, although sometimes Sena had the oddest suspicion that he was being watched.

Oh well, it was probably just Hiruma lurking around somewhere, nothing new.

"So, about New Year's Eve, do you want to come over to my place and watch a move and then we can go somewhere to do a count down?" Sakuraba asked as he sipped at his apple juice. "Sure what time did you want me to come over?" "How long did you want to hang out before we watch the movie?" "Hmmm." Sena nervously ran a hand through his now dry hair. "A couple hours I guess, so I'll come over around eight?" "Eight sounds wonderful." Sakuraba replied enthusiastically.

If this was what going out with Sakuraba would be like all the time Sena could _totally_ handle this.

When they finished eating Sakuraba walked Sena home diligently as though he had done it many times before and Sena couldn't help but vaguely wonder if Sakuraba had been wanting to walk him home like this long before Hiruma told Sena all about his 'blonde pattern.'

Which eventually lead Sena to wonder why Sakuraba even liked him in the first place, since he never really got a good answer out of Sakuraba when he'd asked him what his type was. So when they reached the gate to Sena's house the brunette collected up all his courage and asked:

"Sakur-I mean, Haruto. Why do you like me?" He asked nervously because Hiruma had never really explained to him why Sakuraba liked him and he still didn't quite understand why the older boy would have a crush on him of all people.

"Well, first of all, because you're not freakishly obsessive over me." Sakuraba said with a nervous laugh. "You face all the obstacles on the field with unwavering determination, you're so strong willed, always evolving-" "I'm really not that great." "Yeah you are, and not only that, you're very nice and loyal. If Takami-san made me do some of the training your captain put you through I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be very fond of football at all." Sakuraba paused and blushed a bit before adding. "And you're really cute."

Well, that cleared up a couple of things.

"See you later Haruto." Sena said, lifting himself up onto his toes and pecking Sakuraba on the cheek before dashing to his front door, waving back at the other boy shyly, giggling to himself when Sakuraba had a delayed reaction and didn't wave back for nearly half a minute.

"See you at eight in a couple days." "Yeah, eight... I can call you before then though right?" "Of course." Sena, grinning from ear to ear, stepped inside his house, already thinking that maybe he should go shopping with Mamori since he had no fashion sense and tended to throw on whatever was lying around.

He wanted to look _awesome_ for his date with Haruto after all.


	19. Mizumachi

FASH: Sorry this took so long! I wasn't really sure where I was going with it since I really wanted it to be different from Sakuraba's, and then before I knew it I had to start school and do homework. Oh well, at least's it's only a couple days later than it should be, it could have been worse.

""-speech

''-thoughts

Sena sighed, resigning himself to his fate. "I suppose, if I absolutely have to choose... Mizumachi-kun." Maybe it was because Mizumachi would be a lot easier to confess to, they were the same age after all, he seemed a lot less formal than Sakuraba and was fun to hang out with.

"So that's that huh. I guess we'll have to start mentally preparing you." Hiruma rubbed at his chin thoughtfully.

"Mentally preparing me for what?" Sena asked curiously, surely Hiruma wasn't going to make him write a test or something.

"Next time you see him, you're going to bring this _situation_ to light."

Ooohhh, Sena did not like the sound of that. "The next time I see him, but I could see him at any time, and what am I supposed to do, just walk up to him and say: Hey Mizumachi-kun, Hiruma-san told me that you have a crush on me and is basically forcing me to try and accept your feelings for me, do you want to go out sometime?" Sena glared up at Hiruma from under his bangs while Hiruma carelessly blew a bubble with his gum.

"Yes, something like that except with out the whole me forcing you thing, you could easily not do as I say." Hiruma suddenly grinned, probably realizing that Sena would probably always do what he said out of some strange mix of fear and respect. "So therefore you are doing this of your own free will." He ended, his grin still not gone.

"Well, I suppose that's slightly true..." "Glad you agree, now lets start with these mental preparations!" Hiruma turned and opened up his laptop and began clicking away, Sena looking at the screen curiously.

"One quick question before we go onto this. Why exactly do I need mental preparation?" "Because if we don't prepare you for it you know you'll just run away the next time you see him and avoid him for the rest of your life." "Ah, true."

But how exactly was Hiruma going to help mentally prepare him for that?

"Um, you're not going to make me watch a video again are you?" Sena peered at the laptop with distaste. "No, we need to do this face to face." Hiurma took a step forward. "Mizumachi'll be fairly easy to confess too, just make sure he gets the message and then he'll probably make the first move." "Oh, well that's nice." Sena let out a sigh of relief.

"But that doesn't mean you can slack off when you're confessing, he might think you're just joking at first." "Alright... And this ties in with my mental preparation how?" "You're going to proclaim your love for me." Sena gaped at him and Hiruma rose an eyebrow delicately. "Just pretend I'm Mizumachi. If you can confess to me surely you can confess to him."

Well, Hiruma was right about that, if he could so much as stutter out an 'I like you' to Hiruma, who was a dozen times more scary than the other blonde, he could probably tell Mizumachi he was deeply in love with him without so much as a blush.

But still, proclaim his love for Hiruma? This was going to be _hell_.

"If I say I don't want to do this and instead decided to just improvise the next time I see him-" "Just look me in the eye and say you like me you wimp, it's not like I'm going to kill you or anything."

The thought that this was all just a ploy to get Sena to confess to him and then steal his second ever kiss claiming that the action was _also_ a part of Sena's mental preparation ran through his mind, but he quickly buried the idea, he did not to think about that while 'confessing.'

"Umm, Hiruma-san, the thing is,um, I, uh-" "_Oh for the love of-_" Hiruma ran a hand through his blonde locks, perhaps trying to keep a reign on his temper so as not to scare Sena away, very far away.

"Look, even though Mizumachi will be easy to confess to, if you stand there in front of him whispering 'uh' and 'um' to yourself for a couple minutes his mind is probably going to start to wander." Hiruma placed his hands on his hips, the agitated look on his face slowly beginning to soften up, but not by much. "Let's try this again."

'Sc-scary.' "Quickly right?" He asked shyly and Hiruma nodded curtly.

'Just say it quick and get it over with, just say it quick and get it over with.'

"Hiruma-sanIsortofkindoflikeyou." "If you say it that fast he's not going to understand and you'll have to repeat it."

Sena took a deep breath and tried to convince himself that Hiruma wasn't just making him do this for kicks.

"Hiruma-san..." He began, not noticing the door to the clubhouse was slowly opening. "Ilikeyou." "There, that's better."

Something clattered to the floor and Sena whipped his head around, surprised and embarrassed to see Mamori standing in the doorway, looking rather like a fish out of water as she stared at the two of them.

"Ah, Mamori-neechan, it's not what you-" "_Hiruma-kun!_" Mamori stalked forward like some sort of mother bear ready to protect her cubs. "Are you forcing Sena to go out with you?!" "No! It's not like that Mamori-neechan! It's just practice! Practice!" Mamori looked his way for a moment before turning back to give Hiruma a death glare. "Practice for what?"

"This and that." The blonde replied with a casual shrug of his shoulders that made the vein in Mamori's forehead pop.

That was when Sena decided to intervene.

"Hirma-san is help me practice confessing." "Confess?! Oh Sena, I could have helped you with that, I'm sure you must have been terrified, being forced to say you liked Hiruma-kun." Mamori hugged him tightly and began dragging him away, all the while giving Hiruma a dark look.

Well this wasn't awkward at all.

Mamori kept muttering under he breath until they exited school property and then she finally let Sena go and made him turn to look her straight in the eyes.

"Sena, was Hiruma-kun really trying to help you practice confessing?" Sena nodded. "Do you want any help from me?" "Uh, no! I'm fine! We were just finishing up anyways! I'm good, really good!" Sena blurted out with a blush on his face.

If confessing to Hiruma was hell, confessing to Mamori would like some sort of weird, incestuous torture even it was just practice. To explain it in one word: Ewwww.

"Anyways, I had better get going now." Sena rubbed the back of his head nervously before dashing off, ignoring Mamori's calls of 'let me help you too!'

'Oh well, I'm sure I don't need practice, I just need some time to get accustomed to the idea, and then I'm sure the words will just come naturally.' He thought to himself, only half believing the words.

Oh well, as long as he just holed himself up in his house for a few days he was sure he'd gain the courage to 'bring the situation to light' the next time he saw Mizumachi... Maybe.

He reached home and silently ate dinner with his parents before moving up to his room and playing video games until he felt like he couldn't keep his eyes open any longer. He then promptly pulled the covers off of his bed, buried himself under them and fell asleep on the floor.

When he finally woke up mid-afternoon the next day it was only due to the loud knocking against his bedroom door and his mother's voice disturbing his slumber.

"Sena! Sena get up! One of your friends is over!" "Guuuh." Sena blearily opened his eyes, not quite being able to decipher what his mother was saying.

"Sena! I'm letting him in now." Sena was vaguely aware of his door opening and closing and footsteps getting closer.

"Sena, why are you sleeping on the floor?" Sena squinted. "Monta?" "You're going to get sick like that you know. Stupid decision MAX!" The other boy exclaimed as he pulled the covers off of Sena and threw them in the general direction of the bed.

"Why'd you do that? Now I'm cold." Sena complianed, slowly rising to his feet and rubbing at his eyes.

"Man, how long did you stay up playing video games last night?" "How did you know I was playing video games." Monta gestured to Sena's video game consul and the stack of games the other boy had yet to put away. "It's kind of obvious Sena, but moving off of this topic, we gotta hurry!" Monta grabbed onto Sena's hand and began dragging him out of his room.

"Wait a minute! Hurry where? Where are you taking me?... Monta, I'm still in my pajamas, I've got to change first!" "Oh yeah." Monta let go of his hand and turned to face him, crossing his arms over his chest. "Go on and change, but we're going to be late."

Sena made his way back up to his room, not really sure what they were going to be late for.

'Maybe this is just some weird dream...' He thought as he pulled on a pair of pants and a thick sweater before going out and meeting up with Monta in the hallway.

"Alright! Now let's dash MAX!" Monta grabbed hold of his hand again and dragged him out of the house.

"So, where are we going again?" "Are you still half asleep? Hiruma-san said that he told you about it last night." Sena paused mid step, breaking out into a cold sweat.

"Uh sorry, it slipped my mind, what is it that we're doing again?" Monta turned to him, one eyebrow raised as if to say: how could you have forgotten.

"We're having a 'commemorative game' or something like that, I'm pretty sure it's with Zokugaku." "Eh? Habashira-san?" "Yeah, Hiruma-san says they feel like they've got a score to settle with us since we didn't meet in the autumn tournament." "Ah." 'Oh well, it could be worse, we could be playing against Poseidon.' In fact, when Monta had told him that Hiruma had supposedly 'informed' him of the matter last night he was almost absolutely sure that it was going to either have something to do with Mizumachi, or more 'mental preparation.'

He could totally handle a friendly game with Zokugaku, even if he was still tired and Rui and his teammates still kind of scared him. Too bad there appeared to be a couple of spectators eager to watch the game. And, given the current circumstances, _of course _one of them was going to be Mizumachi, and obviously right after the game (Deimon 37, Zokugaku 19) Hiruma would come up behind Sena, oozing evil intent as he promptly told Sena to hurry it up.

He should have known it was going to end up like this, it wasn't even fifteen minutes after the game and somehow everyone beside Sena and Mizumachi had already had already left the school grounds, although Hiruma could very well be watching from the roof of the school.

"I wonder where everyone went? Even Kakei snuck off without me!" Mizumachi exclaimed and pouted while Sena took some very deep calming breaths. In this situation, even if Hiruma happened to be watching from afar, unless he had bugged him (which was a possibility Sena didn't even want to think about) he wouldn't really know what was going on, so all Sena had to do was get Mizumachi to confess (because he really wasn't up to doing it himself) and things would go smoothly from there.

"Mizumachi-kun, do you like me?" Mizumachi's pout turning into a grin. "Of course I like you!" 'Woah, he admitted it so easily.' "You're an awesome buddy!" 'Ah, maybe not.' "I didn't mean as a friend." Mizumachi leaned in towards him, another pout forming on his lips.

"What did you mean then? You and I are pals right? Right?" "Ye-yeah." "Good." Mizumachi put his hands on Sena's shoulders and stood up straight.

'I don't think he quite understands where I'm going with this.' "Mizumachi-kun, do you like me in any way other than as a friend?" The other boy blinked in confusion for a moment before comprehension dawned on his face, accompanied by a rather tell-tale blush.

"Nooo..." "Are you sure?" Sena prodded gently. "... Maybe..." "Because if you did, I wouldn't mind." "Really?! You wouldn't?!" The brunette grinded broadly. "Not at all." Mizumachi grinned back and slung an arm around one of Sena's shoulders. "Why didn't you say so earlier? I wasn't sure what you were getting at with all your weird questions." "Ah, sorry."

Mizumachu began striding forward, taking Sena along with him. "So, when you say you don't mind, does that mean you like me too?" "Well, to be honest, I'm not quite sure. I like you a lot, but I'm not sure-" "Ah that's okay! Let's just go out and have some fun!" Mizumachi grinned down at him in a fairly cute and confident matter. "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll get to like me lots, cause you know, I'm a great catch." He gave Sena the peace sign.

'Well, at least he's confident.' The brunette thought with a small smile before asking, "So where are we heading anyways?" "We'll know when we get there." "Okay..."

Mizumachi lead them around in what appeared to be random directions for nearly twenty minutes before finally pausing in front of a building, looking rather pleased with himself.

"An arcade?" "Yeah, they had some awesome games the last time I was in here" Mizumachi seemed to boast proudly before pausing and carefully asking: "... Do you like arcades?" "Yeah, I like them." "Good! Now let's go!" He boldly strode in as though he went to this arcade everyday.

But he obviously didn't or if he had, he hadn't improved at all.

Mizumachi was _not_ good with video games and even though he wasn't very good he kept on challenging Sena to a bunch of two player fighting games.

At first the brunette was almost sure that Mizumachi was letting him win because he never saw anyone grin so widely during a game that they were losing, but after seeing Mizumachi playing a couple of games by himself he was pretty sure the other boy wasn't holding back when playing against him.

"Mizumach-kun, when was the last time you came to an arcade?" Sena asked from behind the other boy and Mizumachi attempted to shoot a bunch of congregating zombies. "Sometime during my first year of middle school I guess, before I joined any clubs." 'One would think that since he's an athlete he'd have faster reflexes than the average person and be a lot better at games.' "Did you want to go somewhere else?" Mizumachi turned around, completely abandoning the game as he looked at Sena with a slightly panicked look.

"But I thought you liked arcades.""I do, but... Are you having fun? You're not here just because I like video games are you?"

At that point Mizumachi's character was brutally destroyed by the zombies and 'Game Over' flashed across the screen.

"Don't worry, I'm having fun!" Mizumachi put the red plastic gun back in it's holster. "Did you want to play one of those fighting games again?" "No that's okay, why don't we go somewhere that you like to go?" Mizumachi pouted a bit before giving the matter some thought.

"Well, we could go to public bath." The pout turned into a sly grin. "Yeah, let's do that, we can warm ourselves up a bit." He once again slung an arm around Sena's shoulder and began leading him towards the exit of the arcade, still grinning in a way that made Sena blush. Sure he had been at the bath with Mizumachi before, but it wasn't just Mizumachi with him and it was way before Sena had started to believe Hiruma's 'blonde theory'.

'Not to mention it's still fairly early so there probably won't be very many people there, if there are any there at all.' Sena could feel his face going redder, and it wasn't from the cold.

And just like he had predicted they were the only ones there and even though Mizumachi hadn't done anything perverted Sena still couldn't help but blush every time they caught each other's eyes and keep a bit of a distance between them, a distance that Mizumachi was slowly trying to obliterate.

Sena, who was too busy staring at the surface of the water didn't notice that Mizumachi was right beside him until he felt a hand brush against his side. He jumped a bit and made a rather embarrassing 'eep' sound that Mizumachi laughed at for a while before suddenly turning to Sena with one of the most serious looks he'd ever worn on his face.

"I want to kiss you." He stated before moving in to capture Sena's lips with his own, not really giving the brunette a choice in the matter. Not that Sena was complaining or anything, Mizumachi kissed him softly, pressing his lips to Sena's a bit harder before pulling away.

"Did you like it?" Sena weakly managed to nod his head. "Then I can do it again, right?" He asked excitedly, not even waiting for Sena to nod or make a noise of approval before he was kissing Sena once again with much more enthusiasm than the last time.

Sena shyly began to kiss back, eyes snapping open when he felt Mizumachi's tongue against his lips. He pulled away, beet red.

"Uh, I-I don't think I'm r-r-ready for ki-kissing like th-that yet." He somehow managed to stutter out, not really able to calm down because Mizumachi's hand kept on running up and down his side.

"Too bad, I bet you'd be a great kisser." Mizumachi said sullenly, still not pulling his hand away. "But you know, we're definitely going to have to kiss like that on my birthday." "Hm? When's that?" "The thirty first." "R-Really? That's really soon and... I'm ten days older than you." "It's only ten days, nothing to brag about." Mizumachi moved even closer to Sena. "And you have to kiss me once for my birthday and once for New Years." "O-oh, really?" "Mm-hm, of course, if you need any practice before that feel free to tell me." The blonde was leering at him now, no doubt about it and Sena vaguely wondered if he should take Mizumachi up on his offer, kissing him was really nice after all.

'But think of how many germs we'd be giving each other.' He made a face at that thought, firmly resolving that he wouldn't kiss like that until he absolutely had to in a couple of days.

"Hey Sena?" "Yeah?" "Since you let me kiss you and everything, that means that you already do kinda like me, right?" "Yeah, I guess so." "Why?" Sena turned to Mizumachi, sinking lower into the water lazily. "Why what?" "Why do you like me?" "Well, you're fun to hang out with and you're nice." 'When you're not making insensitive comments .' "You're fun to hang out with and are nice too. And..." Mizumachi leaned over a bit. "You're really cute." He pinched Sena's cheeks teasingly before cupping his face.

"Now now Miumachi-kun, don't do any of that type of-" "I know I know, I'm not gonna kiss you like _that_, but that doesn't mean I have to stop kissing you in the normal way."

He had a point there.

"Well then, what's keeping you?" Sena asked as he wrapped his arms around Mizumachi's neck, clearly wanting Mizumachi to get on with it.

The blonde was more than happy to comply.


End file.
